Violet Fog
by LoSa
Summary: Teen Power Inc story #4. Greta Vortek said that someone distributed a new drug, called "Violet Fog" in Raven Hill. She asks the gang to keep their eyes open and tell her if they hear something about it. At the same time their classmate, Mary Horsety, is going to make a young teacher fall in love with her. Liz wants to save her favourite teacher. Liz's narration.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1. Madame Glykeria**

This strange story began one nice Tuesday afternoon. Sunny, Richelle and I were going to the canteen to have lunch with the guys, when Mary Horsety, our classmate, came up to us.

'Girls, we need to talk,' she said. 'I have news about Andrew.'

'What news?' I asked impatiently. Andrew Craven, our history teacher, was one of my favorite teachers.

'Not here,' objected Horsety, or just Horse as we called her behind her back. 'There are too many ears here. Let's go outside.' She raced downstairs. We looked at each other and walked after her.

Horse dragged us to the big tree behind the school building and pulled out a pack of cigarettes from her shoulder bag.

'Come on, Mary,' Richelle exclaimed impatiently. 'Speak!'

Mary lit the cigarette and glanced at us.

'Andrew's love affair with Ms Mewn is over,' she whispered.

'What?' I flung up my hands.

'Ms Mewn walked out of him yesterday,' Horse leisurely exhaling the smoke. 'A friend of my mother's, who lives next door, saw Stephanie throw her bags into her car.'

'Poor Mr Craven,' I sighed.

'Never mind,' Horse obviously had another opinion. 'He deserves a better girlfriend.'

Sunny and I looked at each other. Mary Horsety has been in love with Mr Craven since he started working in Raven Hill High and now her eyes were sparkling with hope and passion.

Andrew Craven was 34 years old pretty guy. He was youngish, slender, wore long hair and cool jeans. Besides, he had a motorbike and was just a cool man. Everyone liked him, both teachers and kids.

He dated with Stephanie Mewn, our mathematics teacher. All kids at school, especially girls, watched this romance. Me included, of course. And now it looked as if their love was over.

'It's not our business, isn't it?' Sunny said flatly. 'Everyone has problems from time to time. They'll sort out their relationship.'

'I wish you were right,' I sighed.

'Well, it's my chance,' Horse snorted. 'And I'm not going to lose it.'

Sunny and I looked at each other again.

'And what are you going to do?' Richelle enquired.

'I have an idea,' Horse grinned. 'I heard about the woman, who lives in Violet Street. She calls herself a clairvoyant. As far as I know lots of people in Raven Hill have been there to have their fortune told.'

'So?' Sunny asked with her usual calmness.

'So I'm going to see this woman,' Horse replied, looking at us meaningfully. 'I want to ask for her advice what I should do to make Mr Craven love me.'

Sunny gave a sort of snort. Horse cast a dirty look upon her and shrugged her shoulders.

'I can try, can I?' she snapped.

'Sure,' I nodded. 'Go then.'

Horse hesitated for a moment. 'Let's go there together,' she suggested.

Now I understood why she told us her plans. She was afraid to go on her own to the fortune-teller.

'Together?' Richelle seemed to think.

I smiled to myself. There was a hard time in her relationship with Nick. Several days ago Richelle came to my place in tears and said that she'd quarreled with Nick because, as she put it, "he didn't understand". It meant that her sister's boyfriend invited Tiffany and Richelle to his birthday party. She didn't say anything to Nick and spent a nice evening with her sister's friends. When I asked her why she hadn't told Nick about the party, she shrugged and said that Nick should understand that he'd better appreciate her, because there are a lot of other guys, who want to be with her. But Nick wasn't impressed for obvious reasons. Next day we heard his own version. He said he doesn't like that his girlfriend goes to parties with other guys. He didn't run after her, as Richelle probably expected. Now Richelle wished she hand't gone to that party and wanted to make up with him. I hoped they'd sort it out, I was so happy for them. Besides I knew that Richelle didn't want to part with Nick. And I couldn't help noticing that since their quarrel Nick had been quieter and nastier than usual. But none of them wanted to be first to give in and beg pardon.

Richelle realized that it was her fault, though. And she also realized that it wouldn't take long time for Nick to find a new girlfriend. I think that was why when Horsety asked us to come with her, Richelle became interested in it. Obviously she wanted to ask this fortune-teller woman to help her.

'I'd like to go,' she said, examining her fingernails and trying not to look very interested.

'Well, I'm out of it,' Sunny snorted. She didn't believe in such things.

Richelle nudged at me and gave me a meaningful look.

'I can't go, Richelle,' I sighed. 'I'd love to, but I can't. I have to go to a job interview. By the way, you're also supposed to be there.'

She pouted. 'It isn't necessary for me to be there,' she mumbled. 'You'll tell me later. I'll go,' she turned to Horse.

'Great,' Mary beamed at her. 'We'll go there straight after school. You girls,' she looked at us, 'don't tell the others, please. No one should know about it.'

'Sure,' Sunny and I nodded.

So after lessons, Richelle slipped out of school with Horse. Tom, Elmo, Nick, Sunny and I went to the woman, who wanted us to look after her little child. The interview was successful and the woman was very nice. Her four-year-old daughter also was a nice girl, but all the same, we decided to come in pairs.

Of course the guys asked about Richelle, but Sunny and I just shrugged and didn't tell them anything.

After the interview we went to the Pen office with Elmo. We'd been sitting in the back room, drinking coffee, nibbling cookies and chattering when the door threw open and Richelle stormed into the room.

'Where have you been?' Nick drawled, looking at her steadily.

'Ooh, it's…amazing!' Richelle gasped. 'You won't believe what I'll tell you!'

'What happened, Richelle?' I asked impatiently. I really wanted to know what that woman said to her.

'By the way,' Nick drawled. 'It's becoming a habit for you to go somewhere without saying to anyone.'

Tom gave a muffled laugh. Richelle glared at Nick.

'I couldn't. Horse asked not to tell anyone,' she snapped.

'Since when have you been a friend of Horse's?' Tom laughed.

'Listen to me, will you?' Richelle glared at us. 'So, Horse and I went to this woman. Her house was quite plain and a little shabby, but the inside of the building was really spooky. When we rang the doorbell, a tall, plump woman, dressed all in black opened the door. She asked to call her Madame Glykeria. She led us to the workroom and told us to sit down on chairs. Then Horse got straight to the point. She said that she's in love with a man and wants him to be with her. Madame Glykeria demanded a photo of the man. Horse didn't tell me anything about the photo,' she wrinkled her eyebrows. 'I was so upset when I heard that the photo was necessary.'

'Richelle, for heaven's sake!' Sunny rolled her eyes.

'Why did _you_ worry about the photo?' Nick asked suspiciously.

'Forget about the photo,' I put in, noticing that Richelle blushed. 'What happened next?'

'So, Madame Glykeria stared at the photo of Mr Craven and said that it's a difficult case. Then she closed her eyes and started rocking from side to side, whispering something. She grabbed the crystal ball and put her hands on it. But at that moment Horse said that the furniture and all magic things were cheap and that it was probably a mistake to go there. Madame Glykeria gave her a dirty look and said in injured tone that all magic things are ancient, they belonged to her great-grandmother, Madame Olga. Horse began to argue with her. I could see that Madame Glykeria was getting angry. I asked Horse to stop arguing, but she didn't listen. And then…then…'

'What?' Tom yelled, stirring on his chair impatiently.

'Then the light started fading and I saw a green hairless head, which was flying around the room. The head was shrieking something in a sinister voice. And I couldn't even move,' she melodramatically pressed her hand to her chest and looked down. 'It was awful,' she whispered.

She sighed heavily. 'Then this green head shrieked again,' she went on, 'and dived straight at me. I think I fainted because the next thing I remember was the light room and Madame Glykeria, sitting at her desk, smiling kindly at me.'

'Richelle,' I said softly. 'People such Madame Glykeria are always a bit of a fraud, you know. You shouldn't believe in everything she shows you.'

'Well, I believe,' Richelle snapped. 'And if you were there you also would.'

I glanced at the others helplessly. Sunny rolled her eyes, Elmo and Tom smiled politely. Nick was looking at her with his usual superior look.

'Also there was a bear!' Richelle exclaimed almost in tears.

'Bear?' Sunny raised her eyebrows.

'Not real bear,' Richelle explained. 'It was the old, stuffed bear, which suddenly became alive. It raised its head and looked at us.'

'Richelle, there was an engine or something like that inside this stuffed bear,' Sunny snorted. 'Glykeria pressed the button somewhere under her desk and made the bear move. That's all. I wonder why this bear didn't sing a song for you!'

Richelle opened her mouth to argue, but I quickly interfered.

'What did she said to Horse?' I asked.

'She gave her a pack of love powder,' Richelle muttered.

'Love powder?' Elmo scowled. 'What's this?'

'She told Horse to put this powder into a beverage and make her love drink it.'

'You mean that Mary's going to make Mr Craven drink a love potion?' I started to worry.

Richelle nodded gravely.

'I doubt she'll be successful,' Elmo grinned.

'All the same it sounds very interesting,' Tom exclaimed. 'I want to see this place and the green head and the stuffed bear with my own eyes.'

He grabbed his jacket and raced to the door. 'Let's go there!' he yelled.

'Why?' demanded Nick.

'What why?' Tom looked back over his shoulder, puzzled.

'Why do we have to go there?' Nick asked.

'To see this woman,' Tom explained.

'Why?' Nick enquired again.

'Well, it's interesting! If not for you, at least for me,' Tom shrugged.

'Tom, there's no need to go there right now,' Elmo said reasonably. 'It's quite late. You can go there tomorrow.'

'I will,' Tom nodded.

Nick snorted, but didn't say anything.

'Tom, you must have an excuse if you want to go,' Elmo grinned. 'You can't go just to talk to her, can you?'

'Take a photo of a girl,' Richelle advised. 'You can say that you're in love with her, but she doesn't want to see you.'

'Rubbish,' Sunny snapped instantly. 'I reckon love relationship should be natural.'

'Good point,' Nick jeered. 'Why don't you explain it to Horse?'

I looked sideways at them. There they were, sitting and chattering about love. I don't want to admit it, but I was a little envious of Nick and Richelle. They seemed to be different. Happier, let's put it this way. Not lately, though. But all the same, I also wanted to fall in love with someone.

I looked at the boys. Nick, son of a rich, successful businessman, cool and good-looking guy. But he's not to my taste. He's _too_ cool, good-looking and rich. I knew him very well, under mask of an ideal guy, he always wanted to seem, he was a stuck-up spoilt kid. Besides I knew that I'm not his type of girls either, he preferred to date with tall, beautiful girls like Richelle.

Elmo? I liked Elmo. Really. I reckon he's cute. He's short, shy and kind. But he was only friend for me, nothing more. I like to spend time with him. He doesn't joke all the time, like Tom, but he's so clever and knows so much things. He reads a lot and watches scientific programs. I can speak with him about the planet and nature, discuss news in the world.

Tom. He always acted like a clown, but it was only mask. He's clever and very lonely inside. Unlike Sunny, he took his parents' divorce hard and really missed his father, though he tried not to speak about it. I liked him. He's tall, funny and very kind. And he's always ready to help. But I knew exactly that he doesn't have feelings to me.

I sighed and tuned back into the conversation.

'I'll give you a photo,' Elmo was saying. He stood up and started to rummage in a drawer. Finally he found what he was looking for and put a photo on the table in front of us. It showed a man about thirty years old with very pale face and dark circles under his eyes.

'Cool guy!' Tom exclaimed admiringly. 'He's completely sick!'

'Who is it?' I asked.

'Victor O'Neil,' Elmo replied. 'Mrs O'Neil's ex-husband. Mrs O'Neil is a reporter in the Pen. He drank very much and sometimes took drugs. She left him one day and remarried another guy.'

'I hope her new husband treats her well,' I sighed. I was so sorry for this poor woman.

'Yeah,' Elmo nodded impatiently. 'But this man died soon after the divorce. That's why I thought of him. I wonder what this Glykeria will say about him. This guy was completely sick. Kidneys, heart, liver, everything was spoiled by alcohol and drugs.'

'I told you, he's completely sick!' Tom exclaimed smugly, running his arm through his hair in excitement.

'I'd say he's _too_ sick,' Nick drawled. 'Even Moysten could understand it. I don't think it would be difficult for this Glykeria.'

'I know his deceases,' Elmo interrupted. 'That's the point. We'll see what Madame Glykeria says about him.'

Nick shrugged and stood up.

'I'm going home,' he announced. 'It's getting late.'

We all stood up and went outside. Elmo was with us. He decided to go home to do his homework. We were slowly wandering along the street, when someone called us.

'Teen Power Inc!'

We looked back and saw a pretty policewoman coming towards us. We knew this woman very well. It was constable Vortek.

'Hello,' she smiled. 'I hope you don't have news for me?'

'Not yet,' Sunny grinned back.

'I'm glad,' Greta sighed. 'Honestly. But I…' she hesitated, 'I need your help. I want to ask you…um…'

'What?' Nick asked curiously.

Greta hesitated for a moment and then pulled out two pictures from her briefcase.

'Who is it?' Tom grabbed the pictures instantly.

'For goodness sake!' Greta exclaimed. 'Can you be patient for once?'

'I can,' Tom confused.

'Then listen,' Greta went on. 'We've found out that someone distributes drugs called "Violet Fog" here in Raven Hill. We've been doing our best to catch them, but they're clever and just illusive! All what we managed to do by now is catch two sellers, but they refuse to say who their boss is. These,' she jabbed her finger at the pictures, 'are sellers. Anyway, I thought that you go to parties, movies and so on. You can hear something about the "Violet Fog" there. If you hear something, please tell me straightaway.'

'Sure,' Nick nodded smugly.

'But I forbid you to poke your noses into this case and investigate it,' Greta warned. 'I just want you to tell me if you hear something concerning it. Do you understand?'

We nodded.

Greta grabbed her pictures back, said goodbye and drove away. We also went home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2. At the school**

Next morning I met Sunny, Tom and Elmo at the school gate.

'I didn't sleep one wink last night,' Sunny complained. 'I lay awake all night long thinking of that green head. The only explanation I could think of was that there was an engine inside this head, controlled by radio system.'

'Why can't you just believe what Richelle said?' Tom grinned.

'Because I've got another opinion,' Sunny said in the tone of an old wise lady. 'Richelle always believes what she wants to believe.'

'Oh, I'm looking forward to meeting this Madame Glykeria and her tricks,' Tom exclaimed.

Nick and Richelle joined us. They came together, but didn't seem to be happy. We wandered over to the school building.

'Hi!' Horse ran up to us. She smiled softly at us, what was really unusual for her. She didn't think much of Tom, Elmo and me. She grabbed Richelle's hand and dragged her aside.

'What's wrong with her?' Elmo muttered, looking at them sideways.

'Look at her eyes,' Tom was looking straight at us, but he was flicking his eyes to where Horse and Richelle were standing.

I also noticed that Horse's eyes were sparkling with passion. She spoke something to Richelle, occasionally casting her eager look at the school gates, obviously hoping to meet Mr Craven before school starts.

'I hope Mr Craven is already at school,' Sunny said sympathetically.

'Yeah,' Tom agreed.

'Poor Mr Craven,' I sighed. 'I feel so sorry for him. As if that isn't enough for him to have problems with his girlfriend.'

'Don't worry, Mr Craven must be at school,' Elmo glanced at his watch. 'The bell will ring soon. My first class is history, so I'd better go.'

He wandered over to the school building. Tom and Sunny, who also had history class, followed him.

Nick, Richelle and I had science class, so I suggested waiting for Richelle. Nick shrugged and looked sideways at Richelle and Horse, who were standing under a tall tree, talking. Finally Horse cast the last meaningful look at the school gate and went towards the school building. Richelle came up to us.

'We have a problem,' she whispered. 'Horse's brought a beverage with the love powder.'

'What beverage?' Nick and I stared at her.

'I don't know,' she shrugged. 'Juice or compote. She said it's very tasty and good for the health. Mary wants to offer it to Mr Craven.'

'So?' Nick reacted indifferently. 'I'm sure that Craven will refuse. He always tries to keep in distance from Horse.'

'But Nick, what if she insists,' Richelle objected. 'She obsessed by the idea of giving this compote to Mr Craven.'

'And what?' Nick asked impatiently, putting his arm on her waist and pulling her towards the school door. 'What'll happen if Craven drinks a glass of this compote? You said that it's tasty and good for the health.'

'Don't you understand?' Richelle exclaimed. 'It's a love potion!'

'Don't be ridiculous, Rich,' Nick snapped. 'I doubt that it'll work.'

'Are you saying that we can let Horse test this love potion on Mr Craven?' I protested. 'Imagine what will happen if this love powder works.'

'I…' Nick broke off. Looking at the expression on his face, I could easily say that he also realized what would happen if Horse's love powder worked and she won Mr Craven's heart. The mere thought of it freaked me out.

'We can't let her do it!' I exclaimed firmly.

'But what can we do?' demanded Richelle.

'I don't know,' Nick said thoughtfully. 'But you're right, Craven mustn't even sniff this love compote.'

'Yeah,' I agreed. 'Listen, what if we lock Mary together with her compote somewhere,' I suggested weakly.

'It's useless. She'll make a great noise if we lock her,' Nick objected. 'And someone will free her immediately.'

'Or if they don't, she'll herself tear the door to pieces,' Richelle added. 'There's as much energy as in a nuclear bomb inside her now.'

'All the same, we've got to do something,' I exclaimed. 'We know nothing about this powder. And if this powder works, Mr Craven will be fired for being in relationship with a student!'

Nick waved at me crossly. At that moment we heard the bell ring and raced upstairs.

'Horse has a science class with us now,' Nick puffed as we ran. 'So we've got at least one hour before meeting with Craven. We'll think of something.'

'Okay,' I sighed and ran faster down the hallway, because Mrs Fenelli didn't like when students were late for her classes.

But my heroic efforts were useless. The door of the science faculty room was locked.

'What the hell,' Nick twisted the handle several times.

At that moment Brent Howe, our classmate, ran past us.

'Fenelli fell ill,' he shouted to us. 'We have a history class instead. Hurry up.'

We looked at each other and ran after him.

'What are we supposed to do now?' I demanded as we walked into the history classroom.

'I don't know,' Nick mumbled.

'Okay, let's start,' said Mr Craven when everyone sat down at the desks.

'He looks awful,' whispered Elmo, who was sitting behind me.

I nodded. He was right. Mr Craven's long face seemed very tired, there were dark bags under his eyes, his nose was bright red. It showed that Horsety'd told the truth. Obviously poor Mr Craven really parted with Ms Mewn.

'You look so tired, Mr Craven,' Horse said coquettishly from the first desk.

'I'd like to start the lesson, Horsety,' Mr Craven glanced desperately at her.

Horse gave him a passionate look. Mr Craven buried his face in the huge handkerchief and blew his nose.

'Oh, you fell ill, Mr Craven, didn't you?' Horse exclaimed happily. 'Here you are! Drink this,' she started rummaging in her bag.

Oops, it's starting, I thought, watching her in horror. What should we do? Of course, we could grab this bottle with the love potion from Horse's hands and throw it into the window, for example. But if we did, Mr Craven would start dealing with us. And what could we say? That we tried to save him from the love potion? He'd think we're crazy.

Horsety, meanwhile, pulled out a plastic bottle with red liquid from her bag and put it down on the table.

'What's this?' Mr Craven stared at the bottle.

'It's fruit compote,' Horse explained. 'My mother's cooked it this morning from fresh fruits.'

'Horsety, is it a class or a canteen? How do you think?' the teacher glared at her.

'Of course it's the class,' Horse smiled happily at him. 'But this drink is very tasty and good for your health. There's the whole vitamin complex here. It will protect you from viruses and cold. I mean you look so sick, Mr Craven. Drink it and you'll feel much better, believe me!' she pulled out a plastic cup from her bag and filled it with the red liquid.

'Horsety!' Mr Craven raised his voice. 'I suggest we start the lesson! I'll sort out my problems on my own!'

'Yeah, let's start the lesson,' I supported him.

'Drink it, Mr Craven. We can wait,' Zane Quistok yelled unexpectedly. 'Mary's mother is a great cook!'

Zane was in love with Horse and admired everything in her, including her mother and anything else.

Shut up, Zane, I thought.

'He's right, Mr Craven,' Horse insisted, encouraged by the unexpected support. 'You'll feel better and stronger when you drink it!'

Mr Craven sneezed violently and looked sideways at the plastic cup of delicious-looking red liquid.

I glanced at the others in panic. Sunny and Elmo were looking blankly at the teacher; Tom was sketching something in his notebook. They didn't know that there was the love powder in this compote. Richelle stared at the teacher, her eyes wide. Nick seemed to think. He was the one I relied upon. Nick's smart, he'll think of something. He glanced at me and suddenly jumped to his feet.

'I'm sorry, Mr Craven,' he rushed over to Quistok's desk.

'What? Where are you?' the teacher called.

'I have to take my notebook from Zane,' Nick replied. 'Distract Horse,' he whispered to me and Elmo as he passed by.

'I don't have your note…' Zane yelled loudly, but Nick clamped his hand over Zane's mouth and started whispering something in his ear.

I looked back to see Elmo. He stared at me, puzzled.

'What's going on?' he asked.

'Love potion in the bottle,' I breathed.

'What?' he opened his eyes wide.

I looked at the first desk. Horse was holding out the plastic cup of love compote to Mr Craven. Finally he gave up and took it from her hands.

'Mr Craven! Hang on!' I yelled and rushed over to him.

'What's up, Free?' the teacher started.

'Well…I mean…it's…' I hesitated. I was completely stuck for words and didn't know what to say.

'First we should find out what kind of vitamins this drink contains,' short Elmo adroitly stepped between me, Horse and the cup.

'_What_?' Mr Craven groaned, desperately trying to understand what was going on.

'Well, doctors say that different vitamins affect different viruses,' Elmo put on the important look and started to explain.

I looked at him in admiration. He'd watched this program about diseases several days ago and now used every opportunity to discuss it with other people. I reckoned it was interesting, but Tom, Nick and Richelle would say that Elmo'd bored them to death and they already were sick of these diseases.

'You know, Mr Craven,' Elmo droned, 'if there are vitamins with antiviral activity towards virus A in Horse…that is in Mary's drink, but you have, for example, virus B, this drink won't help you at all. Just the contrary, your state might get even worse.'

I looked at the back desks. Nick, still clamping his hand to Zane's mouth, went on whispering something to him. Hurry up, Nick, I thought. Hurry up.

Suddenly Zane beamed at Nick and a happy smile appeared on his face. Quistok always liked to feel himself as a savior of mankind.

At that moment an awkward pause set in. Elmo had exhausted too quickly the list of arguments against the compote and fell silent, looking at me hopefully.

'I don't think I'll die because of a glass of fruit compote,' Mr Craven grinned. 'Come on, Horsety, I'll drink it and we'll start the lesson.'

'No, Mr Craven,' I waved my hands in protest. 'Elmo's right. A friend of my father's had to spend several weeks in hospital because of "wrong vitamins"!'

'Shut up, you idiot!' Horsety hissed, glaring at me.

'I don't understand,' Mr Craven sighed, looking at me and Elmo. 'You six poke your noses into criminals' affairs and at the same time you make a fuss over a glass of plain fruit compote. Go and take your seats. Now!'

He grabbed the cup from the desk and raised it to his lips.

'I'm thirsty! Give me something to drink, or I'll die!' Zane's ear-splitting scream tore the silence in the class.

Zane ran up to the teacher's desk, twitched the cup from dazed Mr Craven's hands and gulped down the whole cup of love compote.

'More!' he breathed and grabbed the plastic bottle from Mary's desk.

'No! Give me that! It's not for you!' Horsety roared furiously.

She tried to take back the bottle, but Zane ducked aside and ran down the aisle, managing to drink compote as he ran. Horse raced after him, but tripped over Brent Howe's bag and nearly fell.

'Be careful,' Brent warned her helpfully. 'There are dumbbells there.'

'Wow! Let me see!' Simon Luper, Brent's friend, rushed over to them. These two guys were crazy about sport and spent a lot of time in a gym, developing their muscles.

'Sure,' Howe pulled out two dumbbells from his bag. 'Look. It's a new model.'

The aisle was blocked up now. Trying to catch Quistok, Horse'd been hitting Brent and Simon with all her might, but they were completely absorbed in studying new dumbbells and took no notice of her.

'Mary! Try the dumbbell,' advised someone.

Horse jumped, snatched the huge dumbbell out of Simon's hands and raised it as if she was going to throw it at the boys.

'Hey!' Simon jumped aside in panic.

'That's a force!' Brent stared at Mary in admiration.

But she didn't even hear his words. The aisle was empty now. Mary, like a furious tiger, rushed over to where Quistok was standing. But it was too late. Zane'd already drained the bottle.

'You sleek hound!' Mary leaped towards him with a challenging shout, waved the dumbbell and threw it.

'Hey! Are you mad!' Zane managed to jump aside. The dumbbell crushed into the wall with a thump.

'Stop that! You'll spoil it!' Brent rushed to save his precious equipment.

At that time Zane, running down the aisle away from Horse and the dumbbell, tripped over the leg of the desk and collapsed on Tom, who was sitting at the last desk. Tom wailed, jumped to his feet and crashed into the bookshelf in the back part of the classroom. There was a vase with withered bunch of flowers on the top of the bookshelf. Tom managed to jump aside, but Horsety, who was running past at that moment, found herself under the pour of stale water and withered leaves.

'Idiot!' having forgotten about Zane, Mary turned her rage upon Tom.

Oops, Tom's dead, I thought in horror.

As for Mr Craven, he was shocked speechless. Everything was happening so fast that the teacher lost control of the situation.

'Take her away from me,' Tom shouted, running and darting between desks. Mary ran after him, waving with the dumbbell.

'Mary! Give me my dumbbell!' Brent roared. 'Do you know how much it costs?'

But Horsety didn't hear and see anything. She was really furious. Tom reached the first desk and was about to run through the door, when it flung open. Mr Frangelli, the principal, came into the class.

'Hello!' he greeted us, smiling broadly.

Right at that moment Brent's dumbbell flew past his face with a threatening whistle.

'What…What's that?' Mr Frangelli jerked back and pressed Tom, who'd hidden behind his back, against the door.

Tom yelled as though he was squashed. Mr Frangelli widened his eyes fearfully and stepped forward. Tom popped into Horse's view again and she bent to pick up the dumbbell.

'Horsety!' Mr Craven finally found his voice. 'Stop that before you injure someone.'

The favorite teacher's voice affected Horse as a magic spell.

'Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr Craven,' she cooed.

Howe rushed over to his beloved dumbbells and quickly put them into his bag.

'Mr Craven, can you explain what's going on here?' Mr Frangelli scowled, looking at the teacher severely.

Mr Craven hesitated. My soft heart told me that we should have helped him. In the end it was we who started this mess and I wasn't going to put the blame on Mr Craven.

'Let me explain, Mr Frangelli,' I began. 'It's the modern methodology of history teaching, used in Europe. Students study history both theoretically and practically. It helps them to understand better and even to feel history events.

'_What_?' Mr Frangelli stared at me.

'For example, Mr Craven told us about the Indian rebellions in North America and we were trying to imitate these rebellions. Now we understand how it happened in eighteenth century.'

'Well well,' Mr Frangelli mumbled and suddenly smiled at me. 'That's right! I heard about this method. Yeah, it's very interesting idea. I'm glad that you, young teachers,' he darted his eyes on Mr Craven, 'try to develop, improve and use new teaching methods.'

Mr Craven nodded slowly.

'Don't be shy,' Mr Frangelli patted his shoulder encouragingly. 'It's a really interesting methodology. But,' he sniffed, 'I can feel something smell funny. What's that? Maybe pipes are leaking?'

'No, we just tried to create the atmosphere of rotten bogs,' Nick put in, smiling as charmingly and innocently as he could.

'Oh, I see,' Mr Frangelli nodded several times. 'Very well! Excellent! But I've got one remark, Mr Craven. When you create an atmosphere of a battle next time, be a little bit quieter, please.'

Saying this, Mr Frangelli turned round and went out of the class. Mr Craven sneezed several times into his huge handkerchief and looked around the class severely.

'I don't want to discuss it with you,' he said slowly. 'But you'd better be quiet, otherwise you'll end up in the principal's office. Okay,' he glanced at his watch, 'we still have twenty minutes before the bell. Open you books.'

And finally he started the lesson.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3. Plans**

Everyone sat quietly and listened to Mr Craven, who was telling us about Pontiac's Rebellion in North America in eighteenth century. But it didn't last long.

'Mr Craven!' a few minutes later Zane interrupted the teacher. 'I'm sorry! I have to leave the class for a while!' he jumped to his feet and ran towards the door and into the hall. Mr Craven stared after him.

'What's wrong with you all today?' he groaned.

'Never mind,' Brent Howe grinned. 'He drank the whole bottle of fruit compote. No wonder he ran to the toilet.'

At that moment Zane came in with a broad smile on his face. Everyone burst out laughing.

'Can we go on, Zane?' Mr Craven grinned into his fist.

'Sure,' Zane nodded cheerfully.

Mr Craven went on telling about Indians' rebellions and their role in the history of the United States of America. I listened to him. Anything was all right. Gradually I started to relax. So, Zane drank this love compote and nothing happened to him, I thought, leaning back in my chair. That proves that this love powder is just a handful of dry herbs or something like that. When Horse realizes that it doesn't' work, she won't try to use this powder on Mr Craven again. That felt pretty restful. Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted with Zane's yell.

'Mary-y-y!' he jumped to his feet again and rushed towards the first desk.

'Another call of nature?' Brent laughed loudly.

But it wasn't. Zane ran up to Horse's desk and dropped to his knees in front of her.

'Mary! I love you!' he announced. 'Please, be my girlfriend!'

'Shut up, you little kid!' Mary didn't even bother to look at him.

'Good Heavens!' I murmured under my breath. Does the powder work? Can it be true? I looked at the others. They also were staring at Zane.

'Don't play games with my heart, Mary,' now there was a challenge in Zane's voice. 'Please say you love me too or my heart will be broken!'

There were some giggles from the class.

'Quistok!' Mr Craven yelled. 'Take your seat!'

'Oh, Mr Craven!' Zane went on standing on his knees in front of Horse. 'Can you say a good word for the poor lord?'

'Listen, poor lord, go and sit down at your desk, will you?' Mr Craven laughed.

Zane didn't move. 'Mary!' he cried in a tragic voice. 'Reciprocate my feelings or I'll go forever!'

'Go,' Mary moved further from him.

'Our ship of love smashed up on the rock of betrayal and hypocrisy!' Zane shrieked. 'Can you hear, Mary? Smashed up!' he shrieked again and the next moment he was climbing on the window ledge. 'Goodbye darling! I'm going away!'

Everyone froze. Zane opened the window and was about to step into the air when Mr Craven rushed towards him, grabbed his hand and dragged him back into the class.

'Do you want me to spend the rest of my life in jail?' Mr Craven roared.

'Oh, don't save my life, it doesn't cost a thing!' Zane announced pretentiously.

'If only Mr Larson heard it,' Nick giggled. 'Zane'd receive the best marks.'

I glared at him. How could he laugh at this moment?

'Oh, my love! My dream!' Quistok kept wailing. Then he dropped to his knees in front of Horse again and gave her a faithful look.

'Shall I send for a doctor?' Mr Craven bent down to him.

'I think he's just overtired,' Nick put in.

'Mr Craven, maybe we'd better take him home,' I suggested. 'I know where he lives.'

'Is there someone at his home?' Mr Craven seemed scared to leave Zane alone in his state.

'His mother must be there,' Tom said.

'Okay. Free, Moysten and Kontellis. You'll do fine, thank you,' Mr Craven sighed heavily. 'What a day today!'

Nick and Tom led Zane out of the class, supporting him. I followed them, carrying Zane's bag.

We went outside and started for Zane's home. While we walked Zane sang several songs about love. He wasn't the best world's singer. As a matter of fact he sounded awful. People giggled or gave us a dirty look as they walked by.

'Great,' Tom muttered, his face was bright red. 'What are we supposed to do with him? And tell me what will happen if this powder is acting on him forever?'

I worried about the same thing. 'Let's go to the park,' I suggested. 'Maybe the fresh air will help him to come to himself.'

We dragged Zane towards the park. As soon as we sat him on the bench, Zane started wailing another song.

'Oh Mary, Oh Mary, Oh Mary, Oh

Talkin' bout love

Mary Oh Mary Oh…'

'Shut up, you idiot,' Nick roared, suddenly losing his temper.

It sobered poor Zane. He fell silent and looked around in surprise.

'Where are we?'

'Don't you remember?' my jaw dropped.

Zane scowled. 'I remember how I saved Mr Craven from compote. Nick said that Craven had a sore stomach and he shouldn't have drunk fruit beverages, because it could give him a fit of ulcer. Then Mary was running after me with Brent's dumbbells. Then…Why aren't we at school?'

We looked at each other. I felt ashamed and guilty. I was so sorry for poor Zane. But it seemed as if we'd saved Mr Craven from terrible troubles. Glykeria's love powder turned out to be a hard stuff. Skipping everything connected with the love powder, we told Zane what had happened

'What did Mary say?' Zane stared at us with hope in his eyes.

'Um…as usual,' I said vaguely.

'It doesn't matter,' Zane waved his hand airily. 'I think it's just a heatstroke or something. I spent the whole day on the roof with my sister yesterday. We checked ourselves for resistance to the thermal stress.'

'How do you feel now?' I asked him. I really worried about him. If it hadn't been for Mr Craven, Zane could have ended up in hospital.

'I'm fine,' Quistok replied cheerfully. 'Listen, we've got a good excuse to miss the school for today.'

Tom nodded vigorously, agreeing with Zane.

'No,' Nick objected. 'We'd better return.'

'You're so boring, Kontellis,' Tom rolled his eyes, but stood up. 'Let's go,' he sighed. 'We've got English class now.'

###

The rest of the day at school was quiet and peaceful. Except the English class, where Zane Quistok showed an unexpected knowledge. He retold V. Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". But for some unknown reason in his narration Esmeralda was described as male. And in the end Zane announced, 'So, poor young man ended his life in the noose in the prime of his life because of betrayal and hypocrisy!'

Some kids giggled, but our English teacher, Mr Larson, who'd always anticipated tricks from students, was really surprised.

'Not bad, Quistok, not bad,' he nodded, looking pleased. 'Of course, there were some mistakes in you narration, but I could see that you tried hard. I think you deserve the highest mark.'

Quistok smiled broadly. He also was surprised. As he told us later, his grandmother had read him "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" very long time ago. Since then he forgot even to think about this novel, let alone details and characters. And today it suddenly floated in his memory. 'I think that's because I saved Craven's life,' he smiled happily at us and raced outside to smoke.

The six of us also went out to the school yard and sat at the table under a wide old tree.

'Do you believe me now?' Richelle looked at us smugly.

'Yeah,' Nick drawled. 'Though it's hard to believe…'

'Maybe this Glykeria really can do something,' Elmo said slowly.

'Listen,' Sunny scowled, 'I reckon we ought to keep an eye on Horse.'

'You're right,' I nodded. 'We can't risk Mr Craven's life.'

'Horsety won't give up,' Nick drawled. 'She's like a battle tank now. She'll blaze through everything in her path.'

'And she still has a lot of powder,' Richelle added.

'So, we have to pretend to be her good friends,' Sunny muttered. 'Great! The last thing I want is to be Horse's friend.'

'We have no choice,' I sighed. 'We ought to prevent her from spoiling Mr Craven's life. We'll get on with her until the powder is over.'

'She can buy another pack of powder from Glykeria,' Richelle shrugged. 'We can't watch her all the time. It's just impossible.'

'If she's disappointed in this love powder, she won't buy another pack,' Nick said thoughtfully. 'So we should convince her that the powder is just a handful of dry herb and nothing more.'

'It's unreal,' Richelle shook her head. 'After Zane's behavior at the lesson, it's easier to make her be disappointed in Craven.'

'It's also unreal. She'll never be disappointed in him,' I smiled sadly. 'At least as long as she studies here. But Richelle's right, we can't watch her all the time.'

'That's why we should find out what she's going to do tomorrow,' Nick said. 'Knowing this, we'll be able to replace the love potion with something similar, but without powder.'

'Good idea,' Elmo nodded. 'Andrew will drink it and nothing will happen. Probably it will make Horse realize that the powder doesn't work.'

'It's an ideal variant,' Sunny grinned. 'But I'm afraid we'll have to go through extreme situations like today.'

'We can ask Quistok drink it again,' Nick's mouth twisted into a sinister smile.

'No, we won't,' I protested. 'He could be seriously injured today because of us.'

'Don't worry, bleeding heart,' Tom grinned. 'He won't agree to do it again. Unless we explain everything, of course.'

'Even if we explain he won't agree,' Nick drawled. 'If _he_ could make Horse fall in love with him by using this powder, it'd be another thing.'

At that moment we heard the bell ringing from the school building. When we came into the classroom we discovered that Horsety had left the school to bring her jacket to the dry cleaner's. I sighed with relieve when I heard it. Now there was no need to worry about Mr Craven at least till tomorrow morning.

###

Finally school was finished for the day. The gang was supposed to meet at the main gate. The five of them were there, acting as usual. Sunny was calmly doing leg stretches, Elmo was leaning against the tree with his nose stuck in a book, Tom was drawing something in his sketch pad. Nick and Richelle were standing a few meters away, talking.

'Hurry up, Liz,' Tom yelled as soon as he saw me.

I smiled to myself. Tom was dying to see Madame Glykeria. I came up to them and they grabbed their stuff to go.

'Hello, Nick,' I heard a voice from behind me. I looked back over my shoulder and saw a pretty girl with dark long hair. She studied in Raven Hill High and as far as I knew she was one year younger than we.

'Hi, Nicole! How are you doing?' Nick smiled softly at her. 'I haven't seen you for ages.'

'I was busy,' Nicole replied vaguely.

'So are we,' Richelle looked the girl up and down with a sort of contemptuous disfavour and took Nick's arm.

Nicole's eyes narrowed.

'Come on. We have a lot to do,' Richelle dragged Nick towards the school gate.

'Wait,' called Nicole. 'Hey, I'm not going to flirt with your boyfriend,' she grinned. 'I just want to talk to him.'

Nick got out of Richelle's clutches. 'You go,' he said to us. 'I'll overtake you.'

We left him to discuss something with Nicole and wandered down the street. I looked at Richelle. She trailed beside me, looking sulkily down at her feet. I took her hand.

'Richelle,' I murmured, trying to comfort her. 'You know there's nothing between them. Probably she wants him to help her with math or science.'

'Besides, you, Richelle, also like it when pretty guys offer to help you with math and science and other subjects,' Tom put in, trying to sound casual. But I knew that he was teasing her. Sunny giggled. Richelle gave them a dirty look.

'Hey, wait!' I heard Nick's voice from behind. He caught up with us. 'Listen,' he panted.

Richelle demonstratively turned her back on him. Tom, Elmo, Sunny and I looked at Nick expectantly.

'Nicole's just invited me…' his eyes were sparkling.

'How interesting,' Richelle grumbled to herself.

'Another ebullition of jealousy!' Tom laughed loudly. 'Too often lately, don't you think?'

'Drop dead,' Richelle grumbled through clenched teeth.

Nick smiled and took her hand. Richelle tried to tear herself out of his grip, but Nick pulled her towards him.

'Stop acting like a poor innocent girl, will you?' he muttered into her hair. 'Just listen. Nicole invited _all of us_ to the night club.'

Richelle kept looking proudly in another direction. But by the expression on her face, I could say that this news didn't make her happy.

'It's not far from here,' Nick went on, still holding her close to him. 'It's somewhere behind The Palace. It's the new, modern club, called "Golden Fish". Nicole says that it's the coolest club in Raven Hill now.'

'It's just what we need!' Tom cheered up. 'We can find out something about this "Violet Fog" drug. Or even we'll meet the distributers' trail!'

'I think the same. That's why I agreed,' Nick nodded. But I had a feeling that he enjoyed this chance to give Richelle some of her own back. That was why he agreed.

'Let's go to the Pen office,' Elmo suggested. 'We'd better discuss it there.'

We arrived at the Pen and settled ourselves down with the biscuit tin and cups of coffee in a corner of the big back room. No one took much notice of us. Everyone was too busy for that.

'So Nick, what about the party?' Sunny glanced at Nick.

'Tomorrow at nine,' Nick started to explain. 'It's quite difficult to get into this club, but Nikki said that her brother works there and she gets on with his friends, so she'll help us to get inside for free.'

'Oh wow! What would we do without you,' Richelle made a face.

Nick stood up and sat down next to Richelle. 'What's your problem,' he asked. 'I'll be with you. Nicole will just help us to get inside and then will leave us. We'll spend a nice evening together.'

'That's great!' Tom exclaimed, spraying crams everywhere. 'We'll have a good night, dance and probably will find the drug dealers' trail.' Tom always liked it when the life was in full swing.

I wasn't so enthusiastic. I can't say that I like night clubs, I prefer quieter places. But probably Tom's right and we'll spend a nice night, dancing and relaxing. Sunny also looked pleased. Everyone liked the idea of going to the night club. Everyone, except Elmo.

He sat quietly, pretending that he was reading an article in Richelle's magazine. I knew what he was thinking. Elmo is a shy guy. He doesn't like noisy parties, and especially he doesn't like night clubs. Firstly, he always felt uncomfortable in noisy, crowded places. And secondly, he didn't like and couldn't dance. Now he was torn between two desires. On the one hand he didn't feel like going there, on the other hand he couldn't afford missing an opportunity to find drug dealers and make a scoop for the Pen.

Elmo aimlessly turned over the pages of the magazine, deep in his private thoughts. He didn't notice that Nick stood up to bring another pack of biscuits and accidently glanced at the magazine over Elmo's shoulder. His eyebrows shot up immediately.

'Oh wow! Look what he's reading,' Nick laughed.

'Come off it,' Elmo yelled. 'I'm reading what I want to!'

I leaned forward and glanced at the opened magazine. The big pink letters of the headline read: "There's no law against living the good life or how to become a sumptuous woman without spending a lot of money."

'I didn't know that you, Elmo, think about such things,' Nick jeered.

'What's there?' Tom leaned forward to see the article. 'Oh, wow!' he burst into laughter. 'Are you looking for the methods how to become a sumptuous woman, Elmo?'

'I…' Elmo went bright red.

Richelle and I also were laughing. As for Sunny, she had been absolutely overcome by one of her fit of laughter.

'Oh, what a great purpose of life,' she said through her laughter, 'to become a sumptuous woman!'

Elmo looked up at us and gave a wry smile. We burst into laughter again. It lasted about fifteen minutes. Everytime we began to calm down, one of us started laughing again and everyone laughed again.

'Okay,' finally Sunny pulled herself together. 'Let's continue. In an hour Elmo and I are to be in that woman's place to look after her girl.'

'Yeah,' Tom nodded. 'And I'm still going to visit Madame Glykeria. I've even brought clothes to change,' he stood up, grabbed his backpack and headed for the men's room to change.

'So,' Elmo summarized, 'Tom is going to see Madame Glykeria. Sunny and I have a baby-sitting job. Liz and Richelle have to go to play a friendship with Horse to convince her that Glykeria's love powder is rubbish without any power.'

'By the way, Nick, why don't you go with the girls?' Sunny put in. 'You get on with Horse.'

I looked at Nick. 'Will you come with us,' I asked.

He shrugged. 'Why not? There's nothing better to do,' he drawled.

'How do I look?' I heard Tom's voice from behind. I looked back. There he was, standing in the doorway dressed all in black.

'Moysten, are you going to see a clairvoyant or to go into a monastery for the rest of your life?' Nick snorted.

'Here you are,' Elmo handed a black folder to Tom. 'It'll finish your image.'

'There's nothing to laugh at,' Tom grinned. 'Firstly, I must look as a mourner. And secondly, I want her to think that I'm a very shy young man. I reckon the black colour is the best for these aims.'

Tom sat down on the edge of a chair and looked down shyly.

'Cool,' Sunny giggled. 'You're a great actor.'

'I try,' Tom said casually, but I saw he was pleased.

He put the photo and money, we'd given to him, into the folder. 'Okay, here we go,' he grinned. We went outside and strode down the street. On the corner of Violet Street and Craigend Road we separated. Tom headed for Madame Glykeria's place. Elmo and Sunny went off to look after the girl. Nick, Richelle and I strolled down Craigend Road to where Horse lived.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4. Tom's visit to Madame Glykeria **

Nick and Richelle swanned along the street, hand in hand, talking together in loud confident voices. Both of them were so tall and good-looking and took no notice of me. I started to feel embarrassed. I even started to regret that I hadn't gone with Sunny and Elmo. I'd been trailing next to Nick and Richelle deep in my thoughts when Horse suddenly appeared right in front of us.

'Hi!' she barked. 'I had to leave the school to bring my jacket to the dry cleaner's,' she shook a little plastic bag in front of my nose. 'Because of Moysten it smelled of rotten flowers.'

'I see your point,' Richelle sighed. 'Tom's so clumsy sometimes!'

'Where are you going?' Horse looked at her.

'To Liz's place,' Nick put in. 'Let's go with us.'

'Sure,' Horse agreed instantly. She stepped between Nick and Richelle, drew her hand through Richelle's arm and they walked slowly along the street. Nick and I glanced at each other and followed them.

'Why are we going to my place?' I asked him very quietly.

He shrugged. 'Your house is the nearest from here,' he replied.

I sighed. To be honest, I didn't feel like sitting at my home with Horse, but what could I do? I was so sorry for Mr Craven and wanted to help him.

###

I glanced sideways at my watch and sighed. We'd been sitting in my lounge room for about two hours already. Occasionally Nick or Richelle glanced at the clock on the wall. I shifted in my armchair. Tom was being late and I started to worry about him. Nick and Richelle had been sitting together in the armchair, chattering with Horse. She, smoking cigarette after cigarette, had been telling us about her nearest plans. She told us that she was going to shop in the city with her mother, then we learnt about a new haircut she wanted to do, then she told us about a new long-lasting lipstick she'd bought in the city.

We'd been smiling and nodding, pretending that we were listening to her attentively. It was important for us to catch the right moment to turn the conversation to Mr Craven.

'Listen, Liz,' suddenly Horse looked at me. 'Is there something tasty in your father's bar?'

'In the bar?' I gaped at her. 'I don't know.'

'Let's see,' she stood up and came up to the bar. 'Oh, martini! I like it. Liz, I hope your parents won't mind if we drink some martini.'

'But…' I hesitated. Actually my father won't even notice. He hardly drinks martini. But all the same, I thought that it was wrong. 'But it's broad daylight!' I said out loud.

'Don't be ridiculous, Liz,' Nick snorted.

Encouraged by his support Mary poured martini into glasses and handed them to us. I took a swig and wrinkled my nose. Martini turned out to be a quite hard stuff. But Nick, Richelle and Horse seemed to enjoy it. They went on talking. I tuned into their conversation.

'By the way, Andrew drinks the same mark of martini,' finally Horse turned the conversation into the right direction. 'Soon we'll drink it together,' she rubbed her hands. 'Soon.'

'If it hadn't been for Quistok, you could do it today,' Richelle pretended that she was sorry about Mary's frustrated plans.

'He's idiot, this Quistok,' Horse growled through clenched teeth. 'But,' she smiled smugly, 'due to him now I know that this powder works. He was acting like mad, remember?'

'Quistok always is acting like mad when it comes to you,' I said, remembering that we had to use every opportunity to dissuade Horse of using this powder.

'Yeah,' Horse agreed reluctantly. 'But today he was really like mad. Oh, if only Mr Craven acted like that,' she rolled her eyes dreamily.

I hope he never will, I thought sadly, sipping my martini.

'It'd help him to cheer up,' Richelle flicked her long hair back. 'He's so lonely now.'

'Don't waste your time,' Nick cut in. 'Act quickly. Andrew and Stephanie can make up with each other and you'll lose your chance to be with him.'

I glared at them. What are they doing? Our task was to dissuade her of using this powder, not to support her.

'Thank you for supporting,' Horse said, looking at Nick and Richelle gratefully.

Poor Mr Craven, I thought.

'Listen,' Nick went on. 'I reckon that you should add all your powder into Mr Craven's beverage tomorrow. Because the day after tomorrow it could be too late.'

'Oh, Nick,' Horse drained her glass and poured some more. 'What should I do?'

We fell silent, thinking. It was our chance and we couldn't afford missing it.

'I think your main mistake was the fruit compote,' Richelle said carefully.

'Why?' Horse stared at her.

'It attracts too much attention,' Nick replied instead of Richelle. 'If you bring another bottle of compote or something else tomorrow, someone will ask to drink again.'

'Yeah,' I nodded. I glanced at them and realized that I'd better stop drinking. Everything in front of me was spinning around.

'But what can I do?' Horsety enquired. 'I can't add the powder into the bottle of beer or Pepsi, can I?'

'You don't have to,' Richelle said quickly. 'We know when Andrew has lunch in the canteen. I think he wouldn't mind if we join him.'

'That's it!' Horse banged her fist on her knee. 'How could I forget?'

Nick and Richelle glanced at each other.

'I'm so glad I met you,' Horsety didn't seem to doubt in us. 'Probably it's my destiny.'

'I think so,' Nick agreed heartily, sipping the second glass of martini.

'I'll go to the canteen with him and add the powder into his tea or coffee,' Horse smiled happily. 'But,' she looked at us pleadingly, 'come with me, please? Help me! I won't be able to do it on my own.'

'I don't know,' Nick drawled, pretending that he didn't feel like doing it. 'Usually we also have lunch at that time and…'

'Nick, please! It's only for tomorrow!' Horsety stared at him pleadingly.

'I think we should help her, Nick,' Richelle put her hand on his arm.

'Oh, all right,' Nick sighed and winked at me.

At that time the phone rang. I quickly grabbed the receiver.

'How are you doing?' I heard Tom's voice.

'Fine,' I answered. 'We're sitting at my place with Mary.'

'Really?' he grinned. 'You sound funny. What are you doing there?'

'We're having a good time,' I noticed that Horse was looking at me and tried to smile into the receiver.

'I see,' Tom snorted. 'Come to the Pen office as soon as possible. I've got news.'

'Sure.' I hung up and turned to the others. 'I'm sorry, Mary, but we have to go.'

'Of course,' she nodded and stood up. 'We all have our own business. Don't forget about tomorrow lunch.'

'Sure,' Richelle nodded.

I put the almost empty bottle back in the bar and we started for the Pen office. I was happy. Probably partly because of martini. But mostly because of the thought that if everything's all right tomorrow, Horse will be disappointed in the love powder.

###

When we arrived at the Pen, Elmo, Sunny and Tom were there. They waved impatiently for us to go to the back room.

'Hurry up,' Elmo exclaimed. 'Tom doesn't' want to tell without you!'

'Sure,' Tom nodded. 'Why should I tell one and the same several times?'

We settled down at the table. Tom put on a meaningful look.

'Come on, Tom, speak!' I dug him in the ribs impatiently.

'Please, be a little bit quieter, Liz,' Tom wrinkled his nose. 'I feel like a wet rag now.'

'Why?' Sunny asked quietly.

'Moysten, will you…' Nick began impatiently.

Tom held up his hand to stop him. 'I've quickly found this place,' he began. 'Madame Glykeria opened the door. She looked exactly like Richelle had described her – a tall, plump woman dressed all in black. I babbled something about my missing distant relative. Madam Glykeria nodded and invited me to come inside. Richelle was right about her house. It's quite spooky. Even the traffic noise wasn't heard there. While following her I found myself walking very quietly and carefully. 'Why?' I thought. 'I must act casually. I've come here to consult a clairvoyant about my poor distant relative.' So, I pulled myself together and started acting like a poor shy guy. Madame Glykeria opened a door of a room and came in, I followed her. She sat down at her desk and pointed at the chair. I sat down, but again I started to feel like bolting away from there without a backward glance.'

'Why?' asked Sunny.

'I don't know,' Tom shrugged. 'It was an inexplicable fear. I can't explain it.'

'Maybe it was something like an instinct of self-preservation?' I said.

'Maybe,' Tom agreed. 'Anyway, I looked around the room, trying to find out where I can run if it would be necessary. The place was full of ancient candlesticks, icons and other stuff. There was a crystal ball on Glykeria's desk and the big, dusty stuffed bear on her right, near the window. I remembered what Richelle had said about the bear and the green head and started trembling all over. For some reason her story didn't seem so ridiculous now. 'Why are you so pale?' Madame Glykeria asked. 'Have you got disguised intentions?' At that moment I got really scared. What should I do now? I thought. 'Just tell me anything,' she said, looking me straight in the eye. My mouth opened and I was about to tell her why I was there, but fortunately I realized that it could end badly for me and decided to think only of my so-called distant uncle Victor and to act like his nephew. And it worked. She stopped asking about my intentions and asked what I wanted from her.'

'Wow,' I gasped. 'Do you mean she could read your mind?'

'Sort of,' Tom nodded.

'She can be just a clever and observant woman, don't you think?' Nick drawled. 'Sometimes it's not necessary to be a clairvoyant to understand what Tom's thinking.'

'Maybe,' I agreed flatly. 'All the same, Tom is a good actor. He can act naturally when he wants to.'

Nick shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

'Let's listen to Tom,' Elmo said calmly. 'Go on, Tom.'

'So I told her that I wanted to know what had happened to my distant uncle,' Tom started speaking again. 'I pulled out the photo from the folder and handed it to her. She stared at it, her lips started moving without any sound. 'Kidney… liver…' she was whispering. 'Car accident…Death. Turn the light off,' she ordered suddenly. I came up to the wall and flicked the switch. The room was completely dark now. Only the crystal ball glowed feebly on her desk. I felt cold and began to tremble again. 'Take your seat,' she whispered very quietly. I staggered to the chair and sank into it. Madame Glykeria kept on mumbling something in a sinister whisper. I wanted to go away, but my legs were so weak, that I couldn't even stand up. I even started to wish I hadn't gone there. Suddenly the room was filled with a blinding light. I squeezed my eyes shut and when I finally opened my eyes, I saw Madame Glykeria standing near the switch and smiling at me. 'Your uncle is dead,' she said, sitting down at her desk again. 'He died about two years ago in a car accident. But he'd die anyway. His organism was completely spoiled by drugs and alcohol.' After that I thanked her and went out. That's all,' Tom finished the story.

'Yeah,' Elmo drawled. 'It's interesting. Everything she said about Victor – about his diseases and the car accident is true.'

'I'm going home. It's late,' Richelle stood up. She was very pale. 'Come on,' she pulled Nick's arm.

'Okay,' Nick said, standing up. 'Let's forget about Madame Glykeria till the day after tomorrow. We have to drop Horse out of the game tomorrow at school. And in the evening we're going to the club.'

We all stood up and started to put on our jackets.

'We haven't decided what to do with Horse,' Sunny pointed out.

'We'll all go to the canteen with her,' Nick said. 'As soon as she adds the love powder into Mr Craven's tea, one of us will replace it with other cup while the others will be distracting her.'

'What should we do with the cup of love potion?' Tom asked. 'To pour it into the sink?'

'Are you mad?' Nick yelled. 'Do you want Horse to figure out what we want?'

'She'll run to Madame Glykeria immediately,' Richelle put in confidently.

'And can buy all love powder that Madame Glykeria has,' Nick grinned. 'Oh, then we'll know the trouble.'

'It will be terrible!' Tom ran his hand through his hair, pacing up and down the room. 'If she buys all powder she'll be able to pour it on everything in the canteen for Mr Craven to take it for sure.'

'And then…It'll be the end,' Nick burst into laughter suddenly. 'Just imagine what…what the school would become after mass taking of the love powder.'

'Whatever it became, it would be renamed,' I sighed. 'It would be a mad house, not the school.'

Sunny burst out laughing. So did everyone else.

'There's no point in it now,' Elmo said when everyone calmed down. 'It depends on the situation. We'll see what to do with the cup of love potion when we replace it.'

Finally we said goodbye to Elmo, who was going to stay in the Pen office as usual on Wednesdays and went outside.

Tom offered to walk Sunny home. Or it was Sunny who walked Tom home. In this case it's difficult to understand. Anyway, they went off together. Nick, Richelle and I walked in another direction. On the corner of Craigend Road I said goodbye to them and went home.

###

When I came home I went upstairs to my bedroom and started doing my history assignment. So when mum put her head around the door I was reading my history textbook and writing down some notes.

'Big assignment?' Mum asked sympathetically.

'Yeah,' I nodded.

'It's dinner-time,' she said softly. 'Come on.'

'Sure,' I smiled at her.

Actually my assignment wasn't very big and when Mum mentioned about dinner I realized that I was really hungry. I ran downstairs and into the dining room. Dad and Pete were there, sitting at the table and playing a game.

During dinner dad started speaking about the rest.

'You, Liz, look overtired,' he said. 'You work hard at school, help your friends, work with the Teen Power Inc. I think you should have a little rest.'

I couldn't help smiling. Before dinner I thought hard what to say to my parents about the night club. My parents don't like such places. Besides I was supposed to come home late.

'You're right, dad,' I nodded. 'I'm overtired. A friend of Nick's invited us to a night club, so I hope you won't be against it.'

On hearing about the night club, dad grunted sadly, but there was no way back.

'Don't worry,' I said quickly. 'It's not far from here.'

'Liz, I hope you understand that a lot of funny things go on in places like that,' he muttered. 'Drugs and alcohol are usual things there.'

'Oh no,' I insisted. 'Nick says that it's a calm, safe place. Not everyone can go inside. Besides we'll be together.'

In the end they gave up. Mum just insisted that I should take a taxi to get home.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5. Love stuff **

The next day, after delivering the Pen around Raven Hill, we had breakfast at the Black Cat Café and then went to school. The first two classes were peaceful and quiet. One of us always kept an eye on Horse. My third class was mathematics. Horse was sitting not far from me, occasionally darting sympathetic glances at Ms Mewn, our math teacher.

'Horsety,' finally she exclaimed nervously. 'Is something wrong with me?'

Horse sighed heavily and shook her head. 'No, Ms Mewn,' she said. 'You look great today.'

'Stop looking at me like that then,' Ms Mewn shrugged and continued to explain something. 'Is it clear?' she looked around the class. 'Horsety! Do you understand?'

'Oh yeah. I do,' Horse nodded with sad expression on her face. 'Your explanation is very good.'

'I also understood,' I whispered in Sunny's ear. 'Horse is ashamed.'

'Are you serious?' she raised her eyebrows.

'Yeah,' I nodded. 'She is sure that Mr Craven will fall in love with her soon. That's why she feels sorry for Ms Mewn.'

'Girls, can you discuss your problems later?' the teacher glared at us.

We fell silent. Horse kept glancing sympathetically at Ms Mewn, but this time she tried to do it secretly. Finally the bell rang. We collected our stuff and went out of the classroom. Horse stood in the way of Nick and Richelle, who were walking down the hallway hand-in-hand and dragged them towards the staircase.

Sunny and I met Tom and Elmo and started for the canteen. Nick, Richelle and Horse were standing by the door. Horse was talking something to Richelle, Nick was standing beside them, looking bored. Sunny dug me in the ribs and flicked her eyes to the left. Mr Craven was approaching us. He didn't look well.

'What are you doing here?' he raised his eyebrows.

'Um…we thought we could have a tea-break with you,' I mumbled. 'You look so sad…we thought you wouldn't mind if we joined you.'

'Oh…that's nice of you,' Mr Craven smiled at us. And I could see that he was really pleased.

'Let's go, Mr Craven,' Horse stepped closer to him.

The teacher quickly squeezed himself through the door. We all followed him. The teachers' canteen was quiet and empty, unlike students' one. A few teachers were sitting at their tables and eating. Mr Craven stopped near the vacant table.

'Let's settle here,' he said.

'Mr Craven, what do you want?' Horse gave him a look full of love. 'I'll bring everything.'

Mr Craven looked away in embarrassment and said what meal and drink he wanted to order. Then he pulled out the wallet from his back pocket and handed it to us.

'Take anything you want. I'll pay for everything,' he said firmly, noticing that Horse was about to object.

Horse beamed at him and went over to the counter.

'We'll help,' we raced after her. It was dangerous to leave her alone now.

'Take a spare cup,' Sunny whispered to me.

Then everything happened so fast, that I can't remember it in details. As soon as Horse received Mr Craven's cup of tea, she, shielded by Richelle, poured the love powder into it. Then she put the cup and other meal on the tray and rushed to the table, where Mr Craven was sitting. We grabbed our trays and raced after her.

The cup with the love potion was already on the table in front of Mr Craven. Horse, pale with excitement, couldn't keep her eyes off him. Mr Craven took bite from a bread roll and reached for the cup.

'Mr Craven!' I yelled, standing behind him.

The teacher jerked his hand from the cup and looked back over his shoulder at me.

'Mary, take a look,' at the same time Tom nudged at Horse.

'What?' she glared at him.

'Mr Larson's over there!' with a stupid smile all over his face, Tom pointed at the next table, where Mr Larson and Mrs Fenelli were eating something.

'Idiot!' Horse growled and turned to Mr Craven. He was sipping his tea.

'Drink, Mr Craven, drink,' she beamed. 'Hot drinks are very good when you've got a cold.'

'Yeah, Mr Craven, drink,' Nick and Richelle supported her with angelic smiles. Horse looked gratefully at them.

The cup of love potion at that moment was under Elmo's jacket. The plan was simple. Usually tea in the school canteen was warm, not hot. As soon as we distracted Horse and Mr Craven, Sunny quickly put another cup of tea on the table and grabbed his cup of love potion and handed it to Elmo. Elmo's task was to hold it under his jacket and pour it into sink as soon as it would be possible.

It was too late when we realized our mistake. In the teachers' canteen tea was hot. Very hot. Firstly I couldn't understand why Elmo was sitting with such a funny expression on his face, though everything had been done as we planned.

'Are you okay?' Mr Craven grinned at him. 'You aren't eating.'

Elmo opened his mouth. But instead of replying he gave a wail and jumped to his feet.

At the next table Mr Larson and Mrs Fenelli were sitting. Mr Larson at that moment was spreading tomato sauce on the sausage. Mrs Fenelli was eating a piece of cake and drinking coffee.

The cup of love tea under Elmo's jacket overturned and a wet spot appeared on his trousers. Elmo howled with pain and shame, jerked back and crushed into the next table. Mr Larson had already spread the tomato sauce on his sausage and was about to put it into his mouth when Elmo crushed into their table. Mr Larson's hand jerked and he accidently crammed the sausage into Mrs Fenelli's mouth.

Mrs Fenelli hated three things in her life: children, cockroaches and tomato sauce. Firstly, children always irritate her. Secondly, she's afraid of cockroaches. And thirdly, tomato sauce is disgusting in her opinion. So when Mr Larson crammed the sausage with tomato sauce into her mouth she froze for a moment and then spat out the sausage with an incredible force. The sausage reached the next table, as though it was fired from cannon, and landed right into Mr Frangelli's plate. He started and looked back at us.

Elmo gave a few howls and ran out of the canteen. There was a puddle under his chair.

'How dare you play such mean jokes with me,' Mrs Fenelli was shouting at Mr Larson at that time.

'It's not me, it's Zimmer,' Mr Larson grumbled, his face was bright red.

'This bunch of kids causes troubles for everyone all the time,' Mrs Fenelli turned her rage on Mr Craven and us.

Richelle buried her face in her hands, she also was bright red. Tom, Sunny and I were completely stuck for words. Nick was the only one who still could speak.

'I'm so sorry,' he mumbled. 'Elmo had a fit of…'

'I'm going to have a fit of vomit, too,' Mrs Fenelli shrieked again and ran out of the canteen.

'Let's go out of here,' Mr Craven stood up.

'Drink! Drink your tea,' Horse couldn't think of anything else.

Mr Craven automatically drank his tea, put the cup on the table and went out of the canteen. We all followed him. 'Into the history classroom,' he ordered.

At the history faculty room he closed the door and stared at us.

'Tell me briefly and quickly what happened to Elmo?' he asked severely.

We looked at each other and went on standing in front of him in silence. I couldn't even imagine what to say.

'Um… There was a bottle of water under his jacket…' finally Nick mumbled.

'Why?' Mr Craven glared at him.

'Well… he thought that it was forbidden to bring his own bottle to the canteen. That's why he decided to hide it,' Nick explained.

'Nonsense!' Mr Craven's eyes narrowed. 'Don't lie to me.'

'I don't lie!' Nick assured him, looking innocent.

Mr Craven shook his head and stared at Nick.

'You mean that water spoiled out of the bottle, which was under Elmo's jacket, through the closed lid?' he asked, trying not to lose his temper.

'Probably it was opened,' Nick mumbled self-consciously.

'Why on earth did he put the opened bottle under his jacket?'

'I don't know,' Nick looked down at his feet.

Mr Craven interrogated us for a while, but didn't receive clear answer. Finally he gave up and allowed us to go on our lessons.

###

The last class was history. I came into the classroom and sat down next to Sunny.

'I'm so sorry for Elmo,' I whispered. Then I turned back to Nick, who was sitting behind me. 'Couldn't you make another excuse?' I hissed.

He shrugged. 'Don't blame me,' he muttered. 'You all could say something. But you didn't. I had to say something to Craven.'

At that time Mr Craven came in and we had to stop talking.

'Let's start,' Mr Craven said. But the door opened and Elmo came in.

'I'm sorry I'm late,' he mumbled shyly. 'I had to go home to change because I'd spelt tea on my trousers in the canteen.'

'It's all right, Elmo,' Mr Craven muttered. 'Come in and take your seat.'

Elmo sat at the desk on my right.

'Well done,' I whispered. He smiled proudly.

'Okay, let's start,' Mr Craven commanded. 'So, today we'll continue studying Indians' rebellions in North America.'

'Oh, I love North America!' Horse said instantly. 'By the way, my mother and I are planning to travel to New York on holidays.'

'New York sucks!' Brent Howe yelled from the last desk. 'My dad was there about a month ago. He wasn't impressed.'

'Much he knows, your dad,' Horse snapped.

'Hey, be respectful to my dad!' Brent stood up from his chair.

'Howe!' Mr Craven shouted. 'Sit down!'

'No, Mr Craven,' Brent objected. 'I just want to know what this hen has against my father.'

Horse gave a shriek, what was like a challenging wail of North American Indians, and rushed towards Brent. But Quistok reached Brent's desk earlier.

'Come again! Who is hen here?' Zane shook his feeble fist in front of Brent's nose.

'Calm down, you frog-sized man,' sturdy Brent disdainfully looked at frail Zane.

'Apologize to Mary!' Quistok demanded.

'Kamikaze,' whispered Elmo.

'We should help Zane!' Tom jumped to his feet.

'Don't worry, little kid,' Mary moved Zane aside. 'I'll deal with him on my own.'

She waved her fist. But Brent managed to bend down and Horse's fist hit Mr Craven's shoulder, who came up to them at that moment.

'Mr Craven!' Horsety exclaimed, her voice was full of sorrow. 'I'm so sorry!'

'Okay, Horsety, take your seat,' the teacher bent his head, hiding the smile.

Horsety wandered over to her desk. Some kids giggled.

'Can we go on?' Mr Craven asked us politely.

'Silence!' Horsety barked, trying to help her favourite teacher.

'You're not Mr Craven's wife to command here,' Brent yelled vindictively.

There was another explosion of laughter. Horsety jumped to her feet again, but Mr Craven made her sit down.

'By the way, Brent, you haven't apologized to Mary yet,' Zane started again.

'Listen, Zane, don't interfere in fights of big people,' Tom advised.

'Sit down, Quistok!' Mr Craven began to lose his temper.

Finally everyone calmed down and fell silent. Mr Craven went on telling about Indians' rebellions. Everything was going right until Mr Craven, unhappily for him, mentioned George Washington.

'Mr Craven,' Richelle said suddenly, opening her big blue eyes wide. 'I've got a question. I know something about George Washington. His portrait is in the centre of one-dollar bill,' she said in her best little-girl voice. 'I don't understand why his portrait is on _one_-dollar bill, though he's done so much for the United States, whereas Benjamin Franklin, who's done less for the country, is on one-_hundred_-dollar bill. Hundred dollars is much better than one dollar. One dollar is nothing.'

Mr Craven's jaw dropped. He just stared at Richelle in silence. Obviously he'd never thought about America's history from this point of view.

'Maybe one dollar is nothing for you,' Elmo muttered. 'But for other people even one dollar is important. Besides, one-dollar bills are more common denomination of the currency than one-hundred-dollar ones. That's why Washington's portrait must be on one-dollar bill.'

'Thank you, Elmo,' Mr Craven looked at him gratefully.

'All the same, I think Richelle's right,' Nick put in. 'Hundred dollars is much better than one dollar, no matter what you say about common denomination.'

'You can have hundred dollars in one-dollar bills, can't you?' Tom started arguing immediately. 'And this pack will be more impressive than a one-hundred-dollar bill.'

'And while counting them in a shop, for example, you'll look at George Washington hundred times,' Sunny added.

'I suggest that we continue to study history,' Mr Craven said desperately.

At that moment the door flew open and Mr Frangelli, the principal, came in.

'What are you discussing?' he asked.

'We are discussing a currency reform in North America during their struggle against Indians!' Tom reported.

'Really?' Mr Frangelli seemed to get interested. 'Did Americans undertake currency reform and a war at the same time?'

'History doesn't know anything about it,' Mr Craven sighed heavily.

'Why are you discussing it then?' Mr Frangelli raised his eyebrows in surprise.

'We're discussing it hypothetically,' Tom grinned.

'Oh, that's right,' Mr Frangelli nodded approvingly. 'And what is your hypothesis?'

'We're using a comparative analysis of dollar bills,' Tom went on jeering.

'It's very useful analysis,' Mr Frangelli nodded again. 'Oh, I almost forgot. I've come to say that we decided that your physical culture programme should contain classes, devoted to swimming. So you all will go to the swimming-pool tomorrow.'

Grin disappeared from Tom's face. 'I hate swimming,' he muttered. Tom couldn't swim and didn't even try to learn.

'Great!' a smile of pleasure appeared on Sunny's face. Physical education was one of her favourite subjects.

'Forgive me for disturbing you, Mr Craven. Please, go on your lesson,' Mr Frangelli turned round and went away.

'There's nothing to go on,' Mr Craven glanced at his watch and sighed. Right at that moment the bell rang.

'You have to study Indians' rebellions on your own,' Mr Craven said. 'You all must prepare a report about it.'

'Sure, Mr Craven,' Horse cooed, collecting her stuff. She went towards the door, but tripped over the leg of teacher's desk and nearly fell, but Mr Craven caught her.

'It worked! It worked!' Horse shouted happily. 'You saved me! Andrew, darling!' she hung on his neck. 'At last! I've been waiting for you so long!'

'Horsety!' Mr Craven yelled in horror. 'Stop that!'

Mary's eyes widened in disappointment, she let go of his neck.

'What's wrong with you?' the teacher glared at her.

'You saved me,' she babbled. 'You didn't let me fall.'

'So?' Mr Craven went on looking at her severely.

'Oh, Mr Craven!' Horse cried and stormed out of the classroom.

'The pleasures of the mighty are the tears of the poor,' Quistok grinned and sauntered away, whistling something like a wedding march.

###

Finally we all gathered near the big tree in the school yard.

'Hi,' Nicole came up to us. 'Will you come to the club?'

'Sure,' Nick smiled at her. 'We'll all come.'

Richelle raised her head proudly. 'Sure, we'll all come,' she said confidently.

'I'll try to help you to get in,' Nicole said. 'But,' she added, putting on an important look, 'it will be difficult.'

'I hope you'll find a way,' Nick gave her a charming smile.

'I think I will,' Nicole beamed at him. 'My brother is on duty today.' She glanced slyly at Richelle. 'So. Ten minutes to nine I will be waiting for you at the door. Don't be late.'

'Okay,' Sunny nodded.

Nicole glanced at Nick again and walked towards the main gate. We arranged to meet by the Palace and also went in different directions.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6. In the club **

When I arrived at the place where we were supposed to meet, the others were already there.

'Hey, Liz! What do you think about my outfit?' Richelle glanced coquettishly at me.

'You look wonderful,' I said. And I meant it. She was in a short, low-cut gown, blue as the blue of forget-me-not flowers. The gown became her and emphasized her perfect figure. She was wearing full make up, her golden hair were floating around her shoulders in a mass of little curls. She looked stunning. I couldn't help but admit it.

I smiled secretly. Obviously Richelle decided to spend a good night in the club. Nick also realized that. He stood there, looking sideways at her jealously. Though Nick himself also looked great, as usual. As for Tom, Sunny and Elmo, they looked as usual. I was surprised that they at least changed.

'What do you think about me?' I demanded. I also wanted to be beautiful that night. I put on a grey top and a dark-green skirt. I even put on high-heeled shoes, though I felt uncomfortable in them. I usually wear convenient ballet flats. Of course, I realized that I'd never look as glamorous as Richelle, but at least I wanted to try.

'You look fine,' Richelle said coldly, without bothering to check. Probably she thought that I was hopeless. 'Let's go,' she said. 'Otherwise we'll miss Nicole,' she flicked back her long hair impatiently.

'Liz, you look great,' Sunny whispered to me.

Tom and Elmo nodded vigorously.

'Here we go! Where's this club?' Tom turned to Nick. He expected much of this evening. Firstly, he liked the idea of night club and drinks and dances. And secondly, he didn't doubt that we would find a trail of drug dealers today.

Nick, without saying a word, led the way up the street, then rounded corner at the Samsung shop. There was a beautiful two-storied building behind it. Big letters "Golden Fish" were shining with coloured lights. Nicole was standing by the door with two smoking guys. She waved to us. When we came up to her, two guys stared at Richelle in admiration.

'Hi,' Nicole smiled charmingly at us.

The guys kept staring at Richelle. She picturesquely smiled at them and turned a little away from us, showing that she didn't mind another company. The guys looked her up and down and finally fixed their eyes on her breast, which looked really beautiful in this dress. Nick gave them a dirty look and put his arms around Richelle's waist.

This is it, I thought, smiling. A little fantasy and natural beauty and you don't need any love powder. Nick seemed to have forgotten about everything.

Nicole's face fell in disappointment, but all the same she whispered something to a guy, who was standing at the door and beckoned to us.

'Have a good time,' she said smugly to us when we came inside, then turned and sauntered towards the company of young people.

'So,' Sunny turned to us. 'Let's see what is what here.'

The club consisted of three big sections: a large hallway with convenient soft divans and little tables, where people could chat and rest from loud music; a bar-room and a dance floor. All walls, floors and ceilings in the club were painted with the pictures of the underwater kingdom. There were crabs, sea stars, octopuses, seaweeds, corals and a lot of fishes of all colors and shapes. We also met several painted anchors and drowned ships. Looking at these ships you could say that they drowned many years ago. Floor was painted as a seabed. Sea stars and rocks lying on the golden sand under our feet looked quite natural. The ceiling probably represented the surface of the sea. A huge golden fish hung overhead on the dance floor. From time to time this fish threateningly rolled its eyes, twitched its tail and spat balloons of all colors out of her huge mouth.

'I'd call this monster a golden shark,' Tom laughed loudly. 'Its face is so angry.'

'Don't like our symbol? Get out then!' a guy with long hair, who probably was in love with this club, turned to us immediately.

'No, we love this fish,' I said quickly. 'He's just joking!'

'He'd better not joke like that,' the guy muttered, turning away.

'Are you mad?' Elmo hissed to Tom.

'Oh, come on,' Tom waved his hand, but refrained from other comments about this golden monster.

The bar-room was decorated like a grotto. When we came in, we found ourselves in an underwater cave. While working at decoration, the painter probably wanted to show that the sea can be violent. There were more drowned ships. Human skeletons, bones and skulls were lying everywhere. Inside one of the ships we could see a chest, probably full of treasure, and a skeleton of a pirate next to it.

We glanced at each other.

'I guess divers feel at home here,' Nick said quietly, trying not to attract attention.

The others nodded, agreeing with him.

'Let's split up to watch different areas,' Sunny suggested. 'We are here to find something concerning the "Violet Fog" drug, aren't we?'

'Of course we are,' Elmo nodded. 'So, Liz, you stay here, in the bar,' he began to give orders. 'It's safe here and you can watch visitors. Nick and Richelle, you'll go to the dance floor. I'll go to the hallway to watch the door. And Tom and Sunny will go around, linking with us. In half of an hour one of us will relieve you of sitting here, Liz.'

We nodded and they went out of the bar. I sauntered towards the counter, trying to look natural and sat down on a bar stool. Pretending to look at the pictures on the walls, I glanced at the dance floor through the glass door. Nick and Richelle were dancing in the centre of the dance floor. Tom was wandering between dancing people in the left part of the dance floor, Sunny was in the right part. Elmo headed for the hallway and probably sat into a soft chair there. I looked around at the people in the bar. None of them looked like a guy from Greta's picture, though some of them looked really funny.

I sighed. I was bored. People'd been coming and going, but I'd been sitting there, looking blankly at the pictures of drowned ships, skeletons and fishes. I glanced through the glass door at the dance floor again. Elmo wasn't anywhere in sight. Sunny was wandering between dancing people, looking bored. She didn't seem very happy either. Only three of us had a good time.

Nick and Richelle seemed to be quite happy. They were dancing and were so absorbed in each other that wouldn't notice drug dealers even if they appeared in front of their noses.

And Tom also was having a good time. At first he wandered around the dance floor alone, then in company with a very tall, thin, red-haired girl. As we discovered later, her name was Melanie. She was a basketball player and a good dancer. And in Tom's opinion, she was quite good-looking.

I sighed again. I was really bored. They all seemed to have completely forgotten about me. Occasionally guys and girls came into the bar, bought something and went out, laughing and chattering. On and on and on I sat there, looking at them.

'Hey,' a guy behind the counter called me. 'Can I help you?'

'What drinks do you have?' I sighed. I guess I looked weird, sitting there alone.

'Try our special energetic drink "Mary Poppins",' the guy replied.

'Okay,' I nodded.

He filled a glass with liquids from three different bottles, mixed and handed it to me.

'Thank you,' I said, looking suspiciously at the glass of disgusting-looking grayish liquid.

'Looking at you I can't say that you're really grateful,' the guy grinned.

'I've come here to relax,' I grumbled. 'And to rest from chattering. That's all.'

'Okay,' the guy behind the counter shrugged indifferently.

I took a swig of the drink and wrinkled my nose. The drink was really disgusting.

Finally I decided that I had had enough and was about to stand up and to go to look for Sunny. But right at that time Tom and his new girlfriend came in. Obviously he remembered about me only when he felt thirsty. When they two got into the grotto, I was sitting on a bar stool and staring down blankly at the glass of disgusting grayish liquid.

'Hey, Liz,' Tom called me. 'What do they have to drink here?'

'"Mary Poppins", the special energetic drink,' I grumbled and pointed at my glass.

'It looks funny,' Tom pointed out carefully.

'This is a special drink of this club,' I said flatly. 'And its price is also "special". Another special drink is "Red Riding Hood",' I went on, looking gloomily at the girl next to him. 'I wanted to order it, but that guy,' I jerked my head at the bartender, 'didn't let me.'

'Why?' Tom asked.

'Because actually it's "Bloody Mary",' I explained. 'They don't sell alcohol drinks to the minors.'

'Wow!' Tom whistled. 'This is a really weird place. These underwater pictures, fishes, strange names of drinks.'

'The bartender says it's their brand,' I'd already found out something, talking with the guy behind the counter.

'Every club has its own brand and style,' Tom's red-haired girlfriend cut in. 'Come on, Tommy. Let's buy something to drink.'

Tom bought two glasses of Pepsi and the red-haired girl dragged him back to the dance floor. I was left alone again. He didn't even offer to sit here.

What a funny night, I thought sadly. Why on earth have I come here?

I went on sitting at the bar counter, looking around lazily. Soon a strange-looking guy came in and sat down next to me. He didn't look like other people here. He must have been about thirty five years old or so. Even modern youngish clothes couldn't disguise his age. I glanced suspiciously at him, but he turned away from me and I couldn't see his face.

Obviously I have to order one more glass of drink, I thought, looking at my empty glass and called the bartender.

'Ah, relaxing girl!' he grinned at me. 'Do you want more "Mary"?'

The man looked back and glanced at me. My heart sank down into my shoes. It was the guy from Greta's pictures. The drug dealer.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7. The chase **

'So?' the bartender patted my arm. 'Do you want some "Mary Poppins"?'

'No,' I protested firmly. I wouldn't bear another glass of disgusting "Mary Poppings". 'Give me Pepsi, please.

'You're weird,' the bartender shook his head disapprovingly and gave me a small bottle of Pepsi.

I unscrewed the lid from the bottle and started sipping, occasionally glancing at the man beside me. He said a couple of words to the bartender. Then ordered another glass of "Bloody Mary", that is "Red Riding Hood".

Safe, calm place? I thought. No, Nicole obviously doesn't know much about this place. All these names from fairy tales, underwater pictures are just a cover for the drug-running. I should warn the others. We'd better go away. I glanced secretly at the man. His pupils were extended.

Yeah, I thought, he must be hopped up. Their pupils always extend when they take the dose of narcotic drugs. And what should I do now? To go to look for the others? But while I'll be looking for them, this man can go away and will go on selling drugs and killing young people. No, I can't let him do that.

The man, sitting beside me turned a little and glanced at me. Probably he noticed that I was looking at him. I pretended that I was staring at a mermaid, who was lying in a coquettish pose on the ship's deck. Out of the corner of my eye I kept watching the man. Now I was sure that he was the guy from Greta's picture. The man turned his back on me and started to sip his drink.

Where are the others? I thought angrily. They told that they had come here to find out something about the "Violet Fog". Well at least Tom, Sunny and Elmo had said that.

At that moment a guy and a girl came in and sat on bar stools next to the man. At first they didn't seem to know each other. But then they started speaking about something. But they spoke very quietly and I couldn't understand a word. Then the man pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed it to them. The guy took one.

He could give them a cigarette with the drug or something, an idea crossed my mind. Oh, if only Sunny were here! She'd do something.

But neither Sunny nor the others were there. I looked at the dance floor through the glass door. Sunny and Elmo weren't anywhere in sight. Tom and his red-haired Melanie were dancing in the back part of the dance floor. But where's Nick and Richelle? They weren't on the dance floor, though they were supposed to be there. Where could they go? I thought crossly. They were told to be there and watch visitors. Finally I noticed them. They were standing near the wall and kissing passionately. I turned away from the door and took a swig of Pepsi. I was sick of all of them and this situation. They all left me here alone and were having a good time somewhere. Okay, it was typical of Nick and Richelle, but I didn't expect this from Tom, Elmo and especially from Sunny.

The girl drank up her "Mary Poppins" cocktail, which I recognized by its disgusting grayish colour, and stood up. The guy shook the man's hand. The man grinned at him and quickly shoved his hand down into his pocket, pretending that he wanted to pull out a handkerchief. It looked as if the guy had given him money and the man had put it into his pocket.

'Hey, relaxing girl,' the bartender's voice jerked me out of my angry thoughts. 'Do you want to drink something?'

'No, thank you, I've still got some Pepsi,' I pointed at the bottle, standing on the bar counter in front of me, and only then I noticed that it was empty.

The guy behind the counter snorted. 'What a weird girl,' he went on jeering. 'You've come in the night club and sit here instead of dancing.'

It's good for you, idiot, I wanted to reply. I pay money for these stupid drinks. Why can't you do your business and leave me alone?

The bartender put a cold can of Pepsi on the counter in front of me. 'It's for you,' he grinned. 'For free.'

'Thank you,' I decided not to refuse and took the can.

'Go and dance,' he kept chattering to me. 'Find a guy for yourself.'

I didn't answer, just took a swig of cold Pepsi and stared at the skeleton on the wall. To be honest I was sick of this underwater stuff, but I knew that if you took no notice of someone, who's talking to you, he'd stop speak in the end. But probably I underestimated the bartender in the "Golden Fish". He didn't stop talking.

'Look at this girl,' he said to the man from Greta's picture. 'She's been sitting here and drinking for two hours already.'

The man turned and stared at me. I bent my head in a panic.

'I'm waiting for my friends,' I mumbled. 'I feel not well. That's why I don't want to dance. Probably I've caught the flu.'

'If you've caught the flu, you should stay in bed,' the bartender pointed out.

'I do what I want to do,' I felt a wave of irritation sweep over me.

The guy behind the counter gave a sort of snort and started wiping a wood statuette of a sailor.

I sighed with relief. But at that moment the man from Greta's picture stood up abruptly and went towards the door. Hastily I leaped from my stool and rushed after him.

'Hey! You don't look sick,' I heard the bartender's jeering voice behind me. 'Sick people don't run so fast.'

The man looked back over his shoulder at me and quickly stepped into the crowd of dancing people. I followed him. After these hours in the bar alone I decided to catch him by any means. Besides, it was easy to follow him in the dimness of the crowded dance floor.

'Hey, Liz, stop!' all of a sudden Tom appeared right in front of me.

'About time!' I hissed. 'I need you.'

'Yeah, I need you too,' Tom said loudly.

The man, who was standing a few steps away from me, turned his head and saw me, and vanished in the crowd.

'Let me go,' I pushed Tom away. 'He's going away.'

'That's what I'm telling you,' Tom agreed loudly. 'She's going away. Give me a pen.'

'Why on earth do you want a pen?' I hissed. 'Let's go there,' I jerked my head to where the man disappeared.

'I don't want to go there,' Tom protested.

'You have to,' I whispered. 'Hurry up or we'll lose him.'

'Not him, her,' Tom objected. 'Mel is going home. I want to write down her number. Give me the pen!' Tom jumped impatiently.

'No,' I barked and pushed past him into the crowd where the man vanished.

I remembered that there wasn't any door in this part of the club, so this man couldn't go far. I walked carefully between people, looking around.

They're so unreliable, I thought angrily. Sometimes it's impossible trying to organize Teen Power Inc. They kept saying that we should come here to help Greta Vortek to find drug dealers. And in the end I was the one person who'd been following this man, whereas they all were having fun somewhere.

Finally I saw the man. He was sitting on a divan in the corner. I quickly looked around for a hiding place. There was a big wooden statue of mermaid, standing beside the wall. I hid behind it. Now I could see everything and no one could see me behind this mermaid. I started watching the man. He was sitting on a divan and looking at dancing people.

I must find Sunny and Elmo, I thought. We should decide what to do. Tom's useless now. He's completely lost his head over this red-haired girl. Let alone Nick and Richelle, who'd forgotten about everything but themselves.

Behind the mermaid I felt safe. After a while I saw Tom making his way through the crowd and turning his head in all directions. Obviously he received Mel's number and finally remembered about me. I wanted to come to him, but in the end I decided to stay where I was, because the man could see me climbing from behind the mermaid. I didn't feel like it. Besides, Tom was coming towards me.

'Let me pass!' I already could hear him yell from time to time. 'I need to find my friend.'

He was already not far from me. I started to wave carefully, trying to catch his attention, but he didn't see me. He stopped abruptly and started to turn his head vigorously in all direction. Then he turned and raced into another part of the dance floor.

Stop! I thought desperately. Come back! I'm here!

'Hey, Tom!' I heard Sunny's voice. 'Where are you going? What's up?'

I carefully peered over the mermaid's shoulder. Sunny, Elmo and Tom were standing a few steps away from me.

'Liz! She's found something!' Tom started waving his arms with excitement.

'What? What did she find?' Elmo enquired.

'I don't know,' Tom replied. 'She said "he's going away".'

'Who?' Elmo and Sunny asked in unison.

'I don't know,' Tom repeated. 'I came up to Liz. She said "he's going away". Then I ran back to Mel and wrote down her number. Then I came back, but Liz wasn't there.'

'Where's she now?' Sunny asked.

'I'm telling you! I don't know!' Tom exclaimed. 'We should find her!'

'How are we supposed to look for her in this crowd?' Elmo looked around.

I started to wave to them from behind the mermaid again, but they didn't look in my direction.

'Okay,' I heard Elmo say firmly. 'You, Tom, stay here. I'll try to find Liz. Sunny,' he turned to her, 'can you find Nick and Richelle and warn them.'

Sunny nodded and vanished in the crowd of dancing people. Elmo looked around and noticed the statue of mermaid. I started to wave to him again. He must have noticed it, because a minute later he was standing next to me.

'About time!' I muttered. 'I thought you all have forgotten about everything!'

'What's up, Liz?' he looked at me seriously.

'Look over there,' I pointed at the man, sitting on a divan. 'Do you recognize him?'

Elmo waited till coloured beams of spotlight fell on the man's face and nodded.

'It's him,' he gasped.

'And it seems to me that the bartender knows him,' I whispered.

The man glanced at his watch, looked around and went quickly towards the door. We got out from behind the wooden mermaid and raced after him. But Tom unexpectedly appeared in front of us.

'There you are! What have you found out, Liz?' he waved his arms in excitement. Effect of his waving exceeded all possible expectations. Accidently he hit a huge guy in the face with his right hand and pushed a girl, who was holding a glass of drink with his left hand. The girl's hand jerked and she spilt her cocktail on her dress.

'I'm going to kill you!' the huge guy bellowed.

'Run!' Tom yelled and rushed towards the door. We ran after him. The man from Greta's picture turned round, saw us and quickened his pace.

'Tom, how could you?' I panted, half scared and half laughed.

'Where are the others?' Elmo hissed looking around.

'Where's Sunny, you mean,' Tom panted as we ran.

'I'm here,' with relief I saw Sunny with Nick and Richelle in tow. 'What's up?'

'We'd better go away! Quickly!' I yelled, grabbing her arm.

We ran past Nicole, who was walking with a glass of violet liquid. 'Hey,' she called us. 'Nick, listen…'

'Not now,' Nick pushed past her.

Nicole stopped abruptly, looking hurt. It was a big mistake of her. Because the next moment the drunk girl with the wet spot on her dress ran up to her.

'Look here!' the drunk girl shrieked, pointing at the spot on her dress. 'Your friends've spoilt my dress! You'll answer for it!'

I didn't see the end of this drama. The man squeezed through the door and quickly strode up the street. Having forgotten about Greta's prohibitions, we followed him. Finally he came up to a big house, unlocked the door and stepped inside. We watched him, standing behind a big tree.

'What a great detectives we are!' Tom said cheerfully. 'One evening and we've found out where one of the drug dealers lives.'

'And you, Tom, tried harder that any of us to find out it,' I muttered mockingly.

'Oh, come on, Liz,' Tom grinned at me.

Nick was already punching the buttons on his cell phone. 'Hello, Ms Vortek, it's me, Nick,' he said into the phone. 'We've found one of them… In the club… "Golden Fish"… No, he isn't there now, but we know where he lives. We followed him… Yes, I remember what you told, but…'

'What's up?' Tom shook Nick's arm impatiently. 'Tell her the address, otherwise he can go.'

Nick shook off his hand and waved him away impatiently.

'It's Tom, who else,' he snorted into the phone and dictated the address.

Suddenly a strange expression crossed his face. 'To repeat?' he asked and repeated the address. Then there was a long pause. Nick blinked at the phone. Then we all could hear a loud laughter quacking through the receiver. We looked at each other in dismay and Nick held the phone back to his ear. '_What_?' his face fell in disappointment. 'But it's the guy from your pictures! We all recognized him!' Greta quacked something to him. Then Nick said goodbye and turned to us.

'So?' Sunny gasped.

'It was a cop,' Nick said gloomily. 'He works with Greta. He just _looks_ like the guy from the picture.'

'The cop?' I repeated in disappointment. And I really was disappointed. So many efforts and spoilt evening turned out to be a waste of time. The others felt the same. We trudged along the street in silence.

'I think we should come in this club again,' Tom said finally.

'Oh, sure,' Nick snapped. 'Maybe we'll crack another Greta's policeman.'

'But, Tom's right,' I put in. 'Did you notice how many young people were hopped up there?'

'No, I didn't,' Tom shook his head. 'I was with Mel all the time. Listen, the girl is cool! She plays basketball and…'

'Hold on,' Elmo interrupted him. 'Liz's right. I also have feeling that someone runs drugs in this club. Besides I heard some people talk about the "Violet Fog".

'And the bartender was quite weird,' I added. 'He can be involved in drug dealing too.'

'I'm going home,' Richelle yawned. 'Nick, call the taxi, please.'

We took a taxi each and separated in the worst mood.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8. Confuse in the swimming pool **

The next morning I met the others in the school yard. Then we saw Nicole.

'Niki,' Nick rushed to her. 'I'm so sorry for our running yesterday. I didn't mean…' his voice broke off. 'What happened?' he mumbled.

Nicole's cheek was scratched. As we discovered later, the drunk girl, which Tom had pushed and her boyfriend, which Tom had hit in the face, tried to deal with poor Nicole, who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her brother rushed to help her, of course. There was a scuffle. Some things were broken. The owner of the club didn't report to the police, but Nicole's brother was sacked and they both were forbidden even to approach the club. And it was our fault.

Nicole glanced gloomily at us, then came up to Nick and gave him a violent slap on the cheek. Then, without saying a word she pushed him away and strode past us and into the school.

'Strong girl,' Richelle grinned cheerfully.

'Speak for yourself,' Nick snapped.

Tom laughed. Nick gave him a furious glance, then turned round abruptly and went towards the school building, rubbing his red cheek.

Sunny and Elmo tactfully walked aside. They tried to hide smiles.

'I'm afraid another conflict is starting again,' I came up to them.

'I'd call it a series of love tragedies,' Sunny grinned. 'Look over there,' she jerked her head towards the school gate.

Zane Quistok and Horse were coming towards the school gate from different directions. Then there was a short, but very impressive scene. Quistok, smiling broadly, started to say something to Horse. Instead of replying, she gave him a slap in the face. Then, exactly like Nicole'd done, she pushed him away and strode past us towards Richelle.

'Everything is repeating in this world,' Elmo said philosophically.

Zane came up to us, rubbing his red cheek and smiling sadly.

'What's happened, Zane?' I asked sympathetically.

'Oh, it doesn't matter,' he waved his hand. 'I'll get over it,' and he raced into the school building.

'I'd better join Richelle' I said. 'I wonder what Horse is planning to do.'

I came up to Mary and Richelle, who were standing under a big tree.

'This Glykeria is a charlatan,' Horse was speaking, leaning against the tree. 'Her so-called love powder is just a handful of rubbish.'

'It didn't work, did it,' Richelle pretended to be disappointed.

'We tried so hard,' I put on a sympathetic look. 'Maybe it will work later?'

'No,' Horse smiled sadly. 'I saw Andrew walking hand-in-hand with a woman yesterday. But I won't give up,' she shook her fist.

I started to get worried again. What if she buys something like the love powder again or thinks of something else? 'And what are you going to do?' I asked her directly.

'Well I'm not going to come to a clairvoyant this time,' she replied. 'Now I know that it's a complete nonsense. A friend of mine told me about this shop in the city. It's called "Secrets of charming". There is a wide choice of different things such pheromone perfumes, beautiful underwear, essential oils and so on. In other words there is everything what the modern sexologists are discovering. And I'm going to buy something there.'

'Good idea,' I nodded and went to my classes. Now I had completely regained my composure. I was sure that Mr Craven would be able to resist these "secretes of charming".

'So?' Tom, Elmo and Sunny caught up with me on the staircase.

'All right,' I assured them. 'Horse is completely disappointed in the love powder and Glykeria.'

###

After lunch we were supposed to go to the swimming pool. I grabbed my bag and went to the parking area where the school bus was waiting for us. The others were already there when I arrived, but because of the last events the gang was split up. Nick was offended with Richelle. Richelle wasn't going to make up with Nick. Sunny was sulky with Tom because of Mel. I couldn't forget how they'd abandoned me in the club. Despite it I still hoped that the swimming pool would help us to forget it all, though.

'Attention, please!' Mr Campbell, our physical education teacher, shouted. 'Your task is to board the bus quickly and quietly, and in orderly fashion. Questions?'

There were no questions. As soon as the driver opened the door, the crowd of kids turned into a howling mob. Everyone wanted to sit in the back of the bus. No way was I going to join it. I didn't feel like being crushed. And neither did the others, well maybe except Tom, who bravely rushed inside with other kids.

'I told you to board the bus quickly and quietly!' Mr Campbell tried to stop the crowd of kids.

'We _do_ it quickly and quietly, Mr Campbell,' Brent Howe panted.

He took a run and flew into the bus.

'Howe! Stop that!' Mr Campbell yelled.

But Brent didn't hear him. He was too busy. Because at the same time Simon Luper, who had already climbed into the bus, started to clamber out, shouting that he'd forgotten something in school. These two collided on the steps. They had almost equal figures and strengths. And none of them wanted to give in. They pushed each other, panting and swearing, like sumo fighters, but didn't move.

'Howe, Luper, stop that!' Mr Campbell yelled. But it did no good. Neither Brent nor Simon could give in. It was a matter of honour for them. Other kids crowded around and watched this fight of giants.

'Howe, do you know that the Principal is waiting for you?' Mr Campbell asked suddenly.

'What? Why?' Brent looked back over his shoulder.

It was enough for Simon to push him off the steps. Brent blinked at Mr Campbell.

'Remember this useful sleight, kids,' Mr Campbell said smugly. 'An unexpected word can distract your enemy, giving you an opportunity to win. Now. Take your seats, otherwise our time in the swimming pool will run out.'

Finally everyone was on board. The driver slammed the bus into gear, and we were off. It didn't take a long time to reach the aquatic centre and soon the bus stopped on the parking lot behind the beautiful blue building.

'In ten minutes I will be waiting for you near the main swimming pool,' Mr Campbell announced when we all came into the hall of the aquatic centre. 'Don't be late, please. You have 50-meter freestyle swimming race today.'

'Oh, I'm gonna die in this stupid swimming pool,' Tom muttered.

He hated swimming. As far as I remember, Tom hardly ever bathed in the swimming pool or even in the sea.

Elmo and Richelle weren't very happy either. Richelle hates everything what can spoil her appearance. As for Elmo, I can't say that he's the best swimmer in the world. Unlike them, Nick and Sunny felt quite excellently. I also was pleased.

Sunny and I had a quick shower and changed into our swimsuits. We went out of the women's change room at the same time when Tom and Elmo went out of the men's change room. They came up to us.

'Where's Richelle?' Elmo enquired.

'She's still changing,' Sunny snorted. 'You know her. She wants to look gorgeous all the time, even in the swimming pool.'

'Where's Nick?' I asked the guys.

Tom waved his hand towards the crowd of kids near the water. Nick was there.

'Nicole turned out to be a cool girl,' Tom laughed. 'Kontellis deserved it, though. Hey, what's going on between him and Richelle? Are they still together?'

'I hope they are,' I sighed.

'Okay, it's not our business, isn't it?' Sunny snorted. 'Don't you know them? They both have more pride and self-admiration than common sense. They deserve each other.' Suddenly her eyes widened. She was looking over my shoulder. I turned round and saw Richelle coming out of the change room.

'Wow!' I breathed. That was all what I could say.

Richelle was wearing a black swimsuit with deep v-neckline, coquettish net on cut-away sides and cut-away back. The swimsuit was really cool and became her, but it was good for a beach, not for the school swimming pool.

'You look…great,' Tom stared at her in admiration.

'It's the latest fashion style,' Richelle exclaimed smugly.

'Richelle!' Sunny hissed.

Mr Campbell just stared at Richelle. He was shocked speechless.

'Brinkley!' he groaned finally. 'Don't you know the rules?'

'What rules, Mr Campbell?' Richelle gave him an innocent glance.

'What rules?' the teacher exclaimed. 'Don't you know that the school swimsuit must be one-piece and high-necked.'

'But my swimsuit is one-piece,' Richelle opened her big blue eyes wide and pointed at the net on her side.

'What the hell does this striptease mean?' the couch ran up to us.

'It's not a striptease. It's Richelle Brinkley,' Mr Campbell explained gloomily.

'It's not a striptease, it's a fashionable swimsuit,' Richelle added sulkily.

'We don't care about fashion here,' the couch objected. 'It's not a beach; it's a school swimming pool. You've come here for swimming lessons and your swimsuit must be one-piece and modest. Go and put on another swimsuit.'

'But I don't have another one,' Richelle shook her head.

'Stop quarreling, Brinkley,' Mr Campbell interrupted. 'If you don't have another swimsuit, you can go. You won't swim in this swimsuit.'

Richelle pouted, turned round and disappeared in the women's change room.

'Some of modern girls are impossible to work with,' the couch mumbled under his breath and blew the whistle. It was the signal that it was time to start the lesson. We all lined up along the poolside.

'What on earth is wrong with your class?' the couch wailed suddenly. 'I've just told you! How many times do I have to repeat about swimsuits?' He poked his finger at Elmo. Mr Cambell looked Elmo up and down.

'Everything's all right with it,' he said at last. 'The swimsuit is appropriate.'

'Appropriate?' the couch roared. 'Do you call it appropriate when such grown up girl comes to school swimming pool topless?'

'It's not a girl,' Mr Campbell protested, 'it's Elmo Zimmer!'

An explosion of loud laughter shook the swimming pool. Everyone was laughing madly. Well everyone except Elmo and me. I was staring at poor Elmo, feeling sorry for him. How could anyone think that he was a girl? He didn't look like a girl at all! Though, I had to admit that today he did. And it was my fault. Short Elmo was wearing a pink swim cap printed with big flowers. Actually it was Miss Moss's swim cap. And since Elmo wasn't a regular swimming pool visitor, he hadn't got his own swim cap; and he hadn't time to buy it yesterday. But to swim without cap was forbidden in the swimming pool. That was why I convinced him to take Ms Moss's pink one. I advised him to put on this cap not in the change room, but right before the race. I told him that he would swim the distance and immediately pull off this awful cap after that, so no one would notice it. I really thought it'd work.

But now, when the couch gave this tactless remark, I realized how stupid I was to think that no one would notice a pink with flowers swim cap on Elmo's head. Everyone was laughing at poor Elmo now. The Work Demons just bent double with laughter. And knowing Nick's mischievous nature, I didn't doubt that he would've been jeering at Elmo's pink swim cap for a long time. And because of big mouths of some girls, everyone in Raven Hill High would know this not funny story tomorrow.

I forced myself to glance at Elmo. He was brightly red. Tears glittered in his eyes. All of a sudden he raced towards the ten-meter diving board.

'Zimmer! Stop!' Mr Campbell yelled.

'How could you?' Tom exclaimed accusingly. 'You've humiliated the poor guy in front of the whole class!'

Sunny already was running after Elmo. 'Elmo, stop!' she shouted.

Elmo took no notice. He was climbing up the ladder to the diving board. Tom and I ran after them. Mr Campbell and the coach were running after us.

'He knows how to dive, doesn't he?' the coach panted as we climbed up the ladder.

'He hardly can swim, let alone dive!' Mr Campbell shouted in a panic.

'If he can't, it won't end well for him,' the couch wheezed. 'If he falls flat on the water, he'll be seriously injured.'

'Zimmer! Stay where you are!' Mr Campbell roared. 'I told you to stay!'

Finally I reached the top of the diving board. I panted as if I'd run a long distance without stopping. Tom and Sunny were already there, holding Elmo, who was trying to tear himself out of their grip.

'Don't dare, Elmo!' Sunny tried to reason with him.

'Elmo, it's dangerous!' Tom yelled.

'Let me go!' Elmo jerked so hard that we all had to clutch the rails not to fall down. Elmo carefully crept to the end of the spring board and stopped. I took my breath.

'Don't…' Sunny began, but it was too late. Elmo took a deep breath and dived, entering the water with a splash. Sunny pushed past us to the end of the board and dived gracefully overhead.

'Great dive,' the coach said in admiration. 'That's what I call professional.'

I carefully looked down, clutching the rails tightly. Sunny'd already caught Elmo and was dragging him towards the poolside. Nick was swimming towards them to help. I turned round and started down the narrow steps of the ladder. Tom, Mr Campbell and the coach followed me. By the time I reached the bottom step, Nick and Sunny had dragged Elmo out of the water.

'He's all right,' Sunny breathed to us.

Mr Campbell sighed with relief. Elmo was sent to the change room. Both Mr Campbell and the coach decided that he'd already done his job. Elmo raised his head proudly and strode past us. None of kids was laughing now. Most of them looked at him even respectfully.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9. How to become a sumptuous woman without spending much money **

At last swimming was over for the day. We bought pizza and started for the Pen office. Because it was Friday, the office was almost empty.

'What are we going to do?' Sunny asked when we settled in the back room.

'So we…' Elmo began.

'We're going to eat for a start,' Tom interrupted, his eyes were sparkling with hunger.

'Here we go,' Nick rolled his eyes.

I stood up and put on the kettle. Tom and Elmo started to set the table. Sunny and I made six cups of hot chocolate. Richelle said that she needed to go to the ladies' room and went out. Nick followed her.

Finally we sat down at the table and started eating pizza. Nick and Richelle hadn't turned up yet.

'Where are they?' Tom asked with his mouth full. 'They will be left without pizza!'

'Leave them alone,' Sunny waved him away impatiently. 'We should decide how to explain to Greta why we followed that cop despite her prohibitions and frustrated her plans.'

'And Tom and I will have to go to look after that little girl soon,' I added.

Tom made a face. 'Let's send the love birds there today,' he suggested.

'They'll go tomorrow,' I grinned.

'I reckon that we should find these drug dealers by any means,' Elmo got to the point. 'Firstly, it's the best way to apologize to Greta for frustrating her plans. And secondly, I promised Dad that I'd write an article for the Pen about it.'

'But how can we do that?' Tom exclaimed. 'We can't investigate it because it's too dangerous. And we can't go to the "Golden Fish" again either.'

'When we were there you didn't think much about the "Violet Fog" drug dealers,' I snorted. 'Quite the opposite. You didn't differ from Nick and Richelle.'

'In other words we don't have any clue to work with,' Sunny cut in quickly to prevent the argument.

All of a sudden Tom banged his fist on the table.

'Yes, we have!' he yelled. 'I know what we can do!'

Elmo, Sunny and I stared at him.

'What?' I asked impatiently.

'Madame Glykeria, the clairvoyant!' Tom breathed. 'We'll ask her. Very carefully and gently. She won't learn who we are and why we need this information.'

'Tom, do you know that you're a genius?' Sunny grinned.

I looked at him in admiration. His plan was really simple and ideal. Although, it was quite dangerous.

At that moment Nick and Richelle came in. They both looked pleased and happy. What were they doing there? The thought flitted through my mind. They sat down at the table together and started eating hungrily.

'Listen,' after a few mouthfuls Nick leaned forward. 'I was thinking of that cop and...'

'Of a cop?' Richelle demanded. 'Were you thinking of the cop while we were…' she broke off and added sulkily, 'I thought you were thinking of other things.'

Tom and Sunny burst into laughter. Richelle blushed and pouted.

'Of course I was thinking of you,' Nick murmured in her ear. 'I always think only of you. I mean I thought of him before.'

'Ah,' Richelle drawled. 'Okay, go on then.'

'Thank you,' Nick snorted. 'So I was thinking how such a clever woman as Greta Vortek couldn't notice that this cop looked exactly like the guy from the picture, she'd shown to us.'

'Perfectly true, Nick!' Elmo exclaimed. 'Why on earth didn't I think of that before? It was a trap and this cop was the bait.'

'By the way,' I added. 'While I was sitting in the bar, a guy and a girl sat down next to him. Then this cop handed a pack of cigarettes to the guy. And the guy shook cop's hand after that. It looked as if the guy had taken something and then given money to the cop.'

'Can you describe these young people?' Sunny asked me.

'I think a can,' I said doubtfully.

'Good,' Elmo nodded with satisfaction. 'So if you, Liz, describe these two people and the bartender to Madame Glykeria, plus two guys from Greta's pictures… I think it'll be enough for her to give us some useful information.'

'What?' Nick and Richelle stared at us. We told them Tom's plan. Unlike us, they weren't very impressed.

'It's not so simple as you think,' Nick shook his head doubtfully.

'You're always complicating everything,' Tom snapped. 'What's your problem, Kontellis?'

'The problem is how to drag information from her without telling who we are and why we want this information,' Nick explained.

'You're right,' a little flicker of doubt swept over me. 'How will we hide our intentions? Tom, you said that she could read people's mind or something like that, didn't you?'

'Yeah, I did, but…' Tom broke off and fell silent, thinking.

'What?' I patted his arm impatiently.

'I was just thinking,' Tom said slowly. 'When I was in her place, I noticed a weird thing. At first she confused me, letting me know that she knew something what I was thinking at that moment, and I was about to say everything to her. But then I pulled myself together and forced myself to think that I was just a poor, shy guy, who wanted to know his relative's destiny. And it worked. She forgot about my intentions and started asking what I wanted from her.'

'Do you mean,' Sunny turned to him, 'that if we think of the same noodles, which we're going to hang on her ears, we'll fool her?'

'I guess so,' Tom nodded.

'All right,' Elmo said thoughtfully. 'But all the same, I suggest that we check this theory before asking her about the drug dealers. That's why one of us has to go to her today.'

'Tom and Richelle were there already,' I said. 'They can't go. I can't go today either, because I'm the only one who can describe those young people in the bar and the bartender. So that leaves only Nick, Sunny and you, Elmo.'

'I don't think I can,' Sunny said doubtfully. 'You know, I'm not good at acting.'

'We must make a good excuse,' Richelle added.

'I know a good excuse!' Tom exclaimed. 'I've got a great-grandfather.'

'A great-grandfather?' Nick raised his eyebrows in surprise. 'I've never seen him.'

'Who cares!' Tom waved him away impatiently. 'He's never seen him. What's the big deal! I've never seen him either. He was reported missing in the First World War. But Mum's got a lot of his photographs. I suggest that we should bring a couple of them to Madame Glykeria. Firstly, we'll check her power again. Secondly, the person, who'll go there, will be thinking only of my great-grandfather and how much he or she wants to know his destiny. And thirdly, it'll give my mother the chance to learn where her grandfather died. She's never seen him either, though. But all the same, I think she'll be glad,' he looked around at us. 'So?' he demanded. 'Is my plan good?'

'Oh sure,' Nick grinned. 'Tom decided to send his mother overseas to see memorial places of glory.'

'Memorial places of glory aren't the main point,' Elmo objected. 'It can turn out to be much more interesting. I know a lot of such stories. Someone was reported missing in a war. But it doesn't mean that he or she died. He or she could have been just seriously wounded or captured. And when the war was over he or she settled somewhere abroad and made a fortune or married a wealthy person. So, Tom, it might turn out that you'd inherit a fortune from your great-grandfather.'

'I don't understand,' Richelle drawled, inspecting her fingernails from all angles. 'Are we looking for the drug dealers or Tom's inheritance?'

'Inheritance is a good thing,' Tom pointed out seriously.

'Why don't you take a glance at it in your leisure?' Nick snorted.

'Hey,' Sunny tapped the table with her fingers. 'We have no time for jokes.'

'So? What do you think about my plan?' Tom demanded.

'Okay, we'll repeat this trick with your great-grandfather, and what next?' Nick raised one eyebrow. 'Our task is to make sure that we can make Madame Glykeria take our bait and that we can use her in our interests. That's why…'

'That's why we must find a good disguise and see if we can fool her,' I finished.

'Right,' Sunny looked at me approvingly. 'But I can't think of any good disguise.'

We fell silent, thinking. But no matter how I tried, I couldn't think of a good, realistic disguise. I looked around at the others. They were chewing thoughtfully. Finally Nick pushed his plate away and leaned back in his chair. His eyes slid around the table and finally fixed on Elmo.

'As far as I remember someone wanted to become a sumptuous woman,' he drawled.

'Very funny,' Elmo pouted.

'And today in the swimming pool he started to make his dream come true,' Nick went on, looking slyly at Elmo.

'Get off his back, Kontellis,' Tom snapped. 'You're not funny.'

'How to become a sumptuous woman without spending much money,' Nick went on, ignoring him.

'Nick, don't start it again,' I said severely.

'You should spend less time at parties,' Tom added rudely.

'It seems to me that someone else should spend less time at parties,' Nick snapped, obviously hinting at Melanie. Then his eyes darted back to Elmo. 'Stand up,' he ordered suddenly.

Elmo obediently stood up, looking puzzled. Nick stared at him as though he saw Elmo for the first time in his life.

'Rich! What do you think?' he winked at Richelle. Lazily she lifted her eyes from her fingernails and stared at Elmo with her head on one side. Then she switched her glance to Nick and back to Elmo.

'Hey, why are you two looking at me like that?' Elmo asked suspiciously.

'A sumptuous woman?' Richelle drawled. 'Nick, you're a genius! That's exactly what we need.'

'I don't know what you need, but I'm sure that you both are going mad,' Elmo grumbled.

Tom, Sunny and I gazed at Nick and Richelle, who looked immensely pleased with themselves.

'Oh, come on!' I exclaimed. 'What is it? What are you talking about?'

'He's about the same height as Liz,' Richelle pointed out, as if she hadn't heard me. 'Oh, it will be a really sumptuous woman!' she added dreamily. 'It takes a little work, though, but then she will be able to take part in any beauty competition.'

'He's got so many freckles,' Nick trailed his finger down Elmo's cheek.

'It's not a problem,' Richelle objected. 'I've got a freckle concealer. But look, his hair is bright red and curly. If we flat iron it, his hair will be quite long.'

'What do you mean "to flat iron my hair"?' Elmo bellowed.

'Congratulations, Zimmer,' Nick put his hand on Elmo's shoulder. 'You've got the starring role.'

'Starring role, not starring role!' Tom exclaimed indignantly. 'Stop chattering! Spit it out!'

'Can't you work it out for yourself?' Sunny seemed to have understood Nick's idea and a small smile crept onto her face.

'Tell us what's that!' I demanded.

Nick gave me a superior smile. 'We'll make Elmo's dream come true,' he said. 'We'll disguise him as a sumptuous woman. Or rather as a sumptuous girl.'

'And he won't spend much money for it,' Richelle grinned. 'Actually he won't spend money at all.'

On hearing this, Tom went into such raptures that he couldn't even speak for a while. Waving his arms like wings, he started to run around the room.

'What are you talking about?' Elmo yelled in a high-pitched voice. He finally realized what Nick was going to do with him. 'No!' he said, shaking his head vigorously. 'No way am I dressing up like a girl! No way!'

'Elmo, please,' Richelle turned her charm on.

'Think about it,' Nick insisted, 'it's the best way to check Madame Glykeria. If she doesn't realize that you're a disguised guy, we'll be able to ask her about anything.'

'But what if she realizes that I'm a disguised guy?' Elmo objected.

'What's the big deal,' Tom shrugged. 'If she does, you'll say that it's just a joke, that's all.'

'And will give her a double sum of money,' Nick added. 'I'll give you enough money, don't worry. The main thing you'll have to do is to think only of female things. Act like a girl and think like a girl. Refuse even to think that you're not a girl.'

'You'll put on a short skirt,' Richelle was already planning how to dress Elmo. 'I've got a good one. I think it'll become you. And high-heeled shoes.'

'No, ballet flats will be fine,' I objected. Nick's funny idea admired me, but I didn't want to go so far. 'I'll give you mine, they must fit you. But all the same, you'll have to put on tights.'

'Tights?' Elmo gasped.

'Don't worry,' I'll give you comfortable ones,' I assured him.

'You can put on your own T-shirt,' Richelle went on.

'And Liz's black blazer,' Nick added.

'Make-up isn't a problem either,' Richelle began to examine Elmo's face. 'Your eyelashes are quite long. Not so long as mine, of course, but long enough.'

'His hands are the problem,' I said. 'Look, a few fingernails are broken and bitten.'

'We'll file them and paint bright pink,' Richelle decided.

'But what about this?' Elmo pointed at his breast.

'Don't worry, we'll glue a false breasts to your chest,' Tom laughed loudly. 'We'll choose as big as possible ones. You'll be a natural sexy girl.'

'To glue?' Elmo opened his eyes wide. 'What do you mean?'

'I mean that we'll use super glue to stick the false breasts onto your body,' Tom grinned. 'I know a good mark of super glue. Your new breasts will be glued to you forever, believe me.'

'I don't want to glue anything to my body,' Elmo protested, looking startled.

'Don't listen to Tom,' Sunny comforted him. 'There's no need to glue anything. You'll just put on a bra, stuffed with cotton. It'll do fine.'

'So let's start,' Nick commanded. 'Now we'll go and find everything we need. Then come over to my place. My parents are out tonight. Let's go.'

###

In an hour a good-looking, elegant girl with short red hair went out of the big, beautiful Kontellis's house. She looked around shyly and sauntered down the street with a determined male gait.

###

We'd been sitting in Nick's lounge room, watching TV. Well only Sunny and I were watching TV. Tom was too excited to sit quietly. He was pacing around the room, from time to time coming up to the window to see if the beautiful girl Diana was coming. Nick and Richelle were sitting on a divan in the corner of he room, chatting quietly about something and occasionally interrupting their chitchat with kisses.

'He's coming! Coming!' Tom yelled all of a sudden and rushed to the door.

'Hurry up!' Elmo stormed into the room. He ran over to the phone and punched in the number.

'Have you found out anything? Elmo, tell us!' Nick demanded. 'Was everything all right?'

'All right,' Elmo assured us.

'So we can use Madame Glykeria's power to find drug dealers?' Tom enquired happily.

'Yes,' Elmo nodded impatiently. 'Miss Vortek? It's me, Elmo Zimmer,' he shouted into the phone. 'Hurry up! We can lose them!'

He told Greta everything what he wanted to say and dictated Madame Glykeria's address. Then he hung up and turned to us.

'So?' we all demanded.

And Elmo started telling his story.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10. Elmo's life as a girl **

The narrow, short skirt was uncomfortable. To go without trousers was quite embarrassing. As if you were going along the crowded street naked. It's so unfair, Elmo muttered to himself. They're sitting in Nick's comfortable house whereas I'm going here almost naked. How the hell could I agree?

At that time he decided to check if he hadn't forgotten to take Nick's photograph. Nick's image was chosen for the love binding today. Elmo dug into the pocket of my jacket, and found nothing but a small, pink handkerchief.

Maybe they put the photo into the jeans pocket? Elmo asked himself. What the hell jeans! I'm wearing a damned skirt. Wonder how girls can live without pockets. Oh, it must be in my shoulder bag, he finally remembered about Richelle's black bag, hanging on his shoulder. Elmo opened it. The photograph was inside. There was also a small female wallet with money for Madame Glykeria, a lipstick, a small mirror and a fold-up comb.

I'd better train in using this thing, Elmo thought, examining the bag. He opened and closed it several times.

Now, dear, he went on speaking with himself, you must remember that you, Diana, keep your wallet in the bag. Don't even try to seek it or anything else in your tights.

From time to time Elmo smoothened down the short skirt. He felt as if it was lifting all the time, baring his legs. The bra, stuffed with cotton, wasn't comfortable either. As he told us later, with every step he felt sorrier and sorrier for girls, because in his opinion it was impossible to live in such awful state all the time.

Except this inconveniences, Elmo was horrified by winking of young men.

I told them! He muttered to himself. The make-up shouldn't be so bright.

As soon as he thought about it, a big man in his middle age came up to him.

'Hello, miss,' he grinned.

Elmo stared at him in horror.

'It's a nice day today, don't you think,' the man looked up at the blue sky.

'Yeah,' Elmo mumbled reluctantly.

'How about dinner in a good restaurant?' the man suggested.

Elmo just stared at him, not knowing what to say.

'My car is over there,' the man went on chattering. 'Wait here, darling. I'll be back in a sec.'

The man went towards the big luxurious car, which was parked a few steps from them. Elmo quickly dodged into an alley and ran as fast as the narrow skirt and uncomfortable ballet flats let.

'It's just impossible to live like that,' he mumbled under his breath. 'I'm so lucky that I'm not a girl.'

He decided to make his way to Madame Glykeria through quiet side streets. Finally he came up to her house.

'Let's repeat,' he mumbled. 'I'm a girl. A girl, named Diana. I'm in love with Nicky. He doesn't even look at me. Don't dare to let me down,' he shook his fist at his own head. 'Okay. Here we go.'

Elmo smoothened down the annoying skirt, and thanking his lucky stars that we hadn't made him wear high-heeled shoes, came up to the door and pressed the doorbell.

'I'm coming!' he heard a female voice. The door swung open and a plump woman, dressed all in black, appeared in the doorway.

'Hello, Madame Glykeria,' Elmo squeaked in a high-pitched voice. We decided that his own voice was too male for a girl.

'Hello, darling, come in,' Madame Glykeria nodded and stepped back to let Elmo in. 'How do you know my name?' she looked attentively at him.

'Everyone knows your name in Raven Hill,' Elmo squeaked in Diana's voice. 'A friend of mine came here several days ago. Your love powder is wonderful! Her sweetheart is in love with her now. They're so happy!'

'I do my best to help people,' Madame Glykeria looked pleased of herself.

At that time a rebellion burst in Elmo's head.

In love, oh sure, the thought flittered through his mind. Even my scalded leg didn't fall in love with Horse.

As soon as this rebellion burst in his head, the smile disappeared from Madame Glykeria's face.

'I can feel that you've got something at the corner of your mind,' she drawled.

But Elmo managed to put down the rebellion in his head by this time. All his thoughts were about how much Diana was in love with Nicky.

'Okay, let's go to the study and you'll tell me your problems,' Madame Glykeria was smiling again.

Wow! It works, Elmo couldn't help thinking.

'What works?' Madame Glykeria looked back over her shoulder.

'Your love powder,' Elmo squealed desperately. 'Oh, I'm so unhappy! I love him so much! Please, help me!'

Madame Glykeria nodded smugly and opened the door of her study.

'Sit down,' she pointed at the chair and sat down at her desk.

'Thank you,' "Diana" squeaked. 'Thank you very much.'

'So?' the woman glanced at her watch. 'Have you brought the picture?'

'Sure,' Elmo nodded and his hand instinctively flew to the tights to pull out a photograph, but luckily at that moment he remembered that he wasn't in jeans and abruptly opened the shoulder bag.

Nicky, Nicky, I love you so much, he kept telling to himself. He pulled Nick's photo out of the bag and handed it to the woman.

'Name?' she barked.

'Nicholas.'

Madame Glykeria nodded and stared at the photo. Her lips started moving, her head slightly rocked from side to side.

I'd better run away from here, Elmo thought, watching her in horror. Idiot! He interrupted himself. What were you told to do? To think about female things! But what the hell do girls think in such situations? Jane Carter is a bitch!.. What else?.. I need to buy a new face cream… But it's so expensive… And also I need to buy… um… a new lipstick. And shampoo… Slippers for my husband… What the hell husband? I'm a teenage girl; I'm not married yet... Nicky! Oh my love!

At this point female thoughts ran out. But luckily right at that time the doorbell rang. Madame Glykeria started and looked up.

'The doorbell is ringing,' "Diana" screeched.

'Yeah,' Madame Glykeria stood up. 'Listen, darling, your case isn't easy. I have to go to open the door now. But if you wait for me here, we'll see what we can do. I think I can help you.'

'Really?' Elmo pretended to be in admiration.

'Yes,' the woman nodded. 'I'll come back soon. Wait here.'

She went out of the room and shut the door behind her. Elmo was left alone. He heard Madame Glykeria open the front door. Then a male voice said something, Madame Glykeria replied. Then silence. Obviously they went to the back part of the house.

Elmo was tempted to run away before this strange woman came back. But then he realized that if he ran away, this experiment would end with nothing. No, he shook his head decisively. I'll go through it to the end.

So he stayed there. Ten minutes went by. Then another ten minutes passed. Madame Glykeria hadn't turned up yet. Elmo stood up and started pacing up and down the room, staring at the ancient magic stuff. Then he remembered what Richelle had said about the stuffed bear and came up to it. The thing was old and dusty. Elmo crouched and began examining it, but didn't find anything interesting. Finally he resolved to touch it and felt a little wire under its skin, leading to Madame Glykeria's desk.

That's it, Elmo thought in satisfaction. Sunny was right about this old thing.

He walked around the room for a while. He already felt bored. Madame Glykeria seemed to have forgotten about her visitor. Elmo glanced at the windows, covered with heave velvet curtains and an unexpected desire to know where these windows looked out, came into his head.

He pushed aside the curtain. The window behind it was painted with white paint. How weird! Elmo thought. He tired another curtain, expecting to see another painted window. But there was a door.

A secret room? Elmo thought. He listened whether Madame Glykeria was coming, but heard nothing. Then he turned the knob of the door and quietly opened it. He found himself standing in the doorway of a small room. The window there was also covered with heavy curtains. In the dimness of the room Elmo could see a table with glass flasks, burners and other chemical stuff.

Elmo crept into the room and saw another table in the corner of the room. There was a big pile of little plastic bags of dark powder on that table. He reached for one of them, when all of a sudden he heard approaching voices. Elmo looked around in panic, and finally dived behind the heavy curtain. Madame Glykeria and a young man came into the room through another door.

'Don't worry,' Elmo heard the young man say. 'I just need more time. I'll take them away soon.'

'No way,' the woman objected firmly. 'I told you that…'

'I know, I know!' the young man snapped. 'I've learnt this lesson.'

'You seem to forget about repercussions,' Madame Glykeria said crossly.

'Okay, give me just one more night,' the young man pleaded. 'I'll finish my work tonight and take everything away from here.'

'No,' the woman objected. 'Don't you understand how it's dangerous to keep it here? What if one of my clients finds this room? What will they find here?'

'If your clients poke their noses here, we'll have to kill them,' the young man smirked rudely.

Elmo held his breath. If they should see him… The young man didn't seem to joke.

'What are you saying?' the woman hissed. 'Don't you have enough problems? A young man has died because of your powder! The police are searching everywhere!'

'I know,' the young man said. 'I promise I'll finish everything tonight and you'll never see this powder here again.'

'I hope so,' the woman said. 'Okay. Only one night. Off you go now. A young girl is waiting for me in the study. It's not polite to make clients wait. I can't afford losing the money they pay.'

Elmo carefully peeped out through the curtain. The young man, standing next to Madame Glykeria seemed familiar, but Elmo couldn't remember where he'd seen him.

Madame Glykeria and the man went out of the room. Elmo quickly ran into Madame Glykeria's study and sat on his chair.

Then as though a light bulb had switched on in his head, he remembered where he'd seen that young man. It was the bartender from the "Golden Fish". Elmo replayed the conversation in his mind and suddenly it all made sense.

I must go away from here as soon as possible, he thought.

At that moment Madame Glykeria came in and sat at her desk.

'I'm sorry, darling,' she sang. 'I had to solve a problem with my nephew.'

'Oh never mind. I understand,' "Diana" squeaked.

'Thank you,' Madame Glykeria nodded. 'I have good news. Your sweetheart has feelings to other girl, but you have a chance. I'll give you some love powder. It'll help you to get rid of your rival.'

Then she gave Elmo the same recommendations as she'd given to Horse and handed a pack with brown powder over to him.

'If it won't help, come here. We'll look for another way to make the guy fall in love with you,' she said, leading the way towards the front door.

'Thank you,' Elmo thanked her and started for Nick's house.

###

That night the police caught the bartender and his fellow worker while they were producing the "Violet Fog" drug in the secret room behind Madame Glykeria's study. In the little plastic bags, Elmo had found on the table, was the "Violet Fog".

Madame Glykeria managed to run away. When the policemen caught the drug dealers and put handcuffs on them, they started to search the room. Madame Glykeria was sitting quietly at her desk, sobbing about her business and favourite nephew. Then she went pale and clutched at her heart. The policemen thought that she had a heart attack. One of the policemen rushed to the phone to ring the ambulance. But Madame Glykeria waved her arms at him and said that she didn't need the ambulance, because she could cure herself. She asked only the permission to make a cup of special tisane. They allowed her to go to the kitchen, where she boiled some water, poured it into a cup and returned to the study. Then she put some dry rubbish into the cup. Suddenly the thick smoke began to raise from the cup. It filled the room. The policemen started to choke. Their eyes filled with water and they could see nothing. When the smoke cleared they saw that Madame Glykeria disappeared.

Well, not magically disappeared. While the policemen coughed and rubbed their eyes, she ran away through the door in the secret room behind her study. But it didn't make them feel better.

But it didn't matter, because the main thing was that we'd helped the police to catch the drug dealers.

Elmo wrote the article for the Pen, where he mentioned us, of course. He didn't mention himself as Diana, though. He was too shy for that. Zim was very proud of Elmo. You can imagine his face when he saw a new girl in our gang. At first he didn't even recognized his son.

And that's how the story ended.


End file.
